To Secure the Future NBA Star, Funnel Money (Lots of it) to the Shady AAU Coach
College Basketball, Douchy Agents, Recruiting, Shady McShady March 11th. 2009, 4:45pm
Here’s how the process works: Sports agency in NY needs to sign NBA draft picks. The easiest route? Target the young AAU stars who are pegged for the NBA. Best way to the players? Their flesh-peddling AAU coach.
The money trail? Easy – the AAU coach sets up a non-profit foundation (taxes, baby), and the sports agency sends money (lots of it) in hopes that the coach will help steer players to said agency prior to the NBA draft. When the AAU coach can’t close a player, the agency sends in a “wow stick,” like former Duke All-American Jay Williams.
Williams couldn’t seal the deal with UCLA’s Kevin Love.
“My face turned completely red,†he said. “I respect [Williams] as a player. But he came after me and once he started talking about all that agent stuff, I said, ‘You know what, talk to my family … “If I was going with an agent, why would I ever go with a guy who, no offense, but he crashed a motorcycle into a tree. I’m not going to go with a guy that’s reckless.€
Jay Williams is now given up hope on the sports agent business and is catching alley-oops from Rece Davis on ESPN. That’s probably a good thing. Tremendous reporting here, and a rarity, too – everyone talks on the record.
Would anyone be remotely surprised if college boosters were sending money to AAU coaches in this same fashion? Hope not.
Agents and AAU (Unrequired Love)
33 Responses to “To Secure the Future NBA Star, Funnel Money (Lots of it) to the Shady AAU Coach”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
As in: “Wow. I better stay away from motorcylces.”
March 11th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
this whole post is racist and so is kevin love.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Kevin Love > Greg Oden
March 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
K Love is a smart guy.
Common sense > One year of College
March 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Kevin Love’s Cup Size > My Girlfriend’s
March 11th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Much respect for Love…as nasty as Jason was in college, he did ruin his career on the back of a motorcycle.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Not just the boosters but the university themselves. (see Kansas State; asst. coach Dalonte Hill)
March 11th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
What does this mean?
March 11th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
1. Most AAU coaches are dedicated volunteers who wind up going from business to business fund raising or spending a nice piece of change out of their own pockets to sustain a program.
2. The stigma attached to AAU is played to the hilt, but the tremendous benefit AAU has contributed to the game of basketball is never spoken of. 20 years ago, a LeBron James wouldn’t have existed, because you would have had a know it all coach either entrenched in the school or the community telling him “you’re 6′7″, your head needs to be under the basket, not on the perimeter……” That coach wouldn’t care about what position that player needed to prepare for in college.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Great article describing just a piece of the new sleaziness in college basketball…
This goes away if they let kids go directly to the Assocation out of high school… Well, the dealings still go on, but without the colleges in the middle of it.
Kids that CHOOSE to go to college are locked in for X years (I say 3). Agents and the like have no reason to beat on their door early. It lets kids be kids and go to school and play basketball.
Yet, Stern doesn’t want to babysit 18 year olds in his league, so he wants the NCAA to do it for him by having them required to be in the league for at least 1 year and now maybe 2. Ridiculous.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
So this post clearly just exists to take a shot at a classy guy who’s career got fucked up by one mistake. Well at least he has his degree from Duke (in three fucking years) as opposed to Love who won’t have anything when he eats himself out of the league.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Kevin Love has huge bitch-tits
March 11th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Oh ok I got scared for a minute. I thought you meant your girlfriend had a monster cock or something.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
what are the odds that jay williams kills himself?
not that i want him to. but compared to what he could have had to what he has got now i bet he wakes up everyday and kicks himself in the ass for that motorcycle accident.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
mole –
I didn’t see it as a shot at Williams. Based on his quotes, Jay seemed naive to the whole thing, which should tell you how new it is to the college basketball game. He WAS being used and Love didn’t like. Williams was more the middle man, unbeknownst to him.
Glad he got out of the business, because he seems like too classy a guy to be mixed up in the crap…
March 11th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I’m sure no one would’ve approached LeBron or Dwight during their first two years in college.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
It isn’t just boosters funding these teams, take a look at the shoe companies behind it. It is odd that some of these kids teams are sponsored by some shoe in aau, their list of college schools is all adidas for example, then after they graduate they sign with that shoe company. Adidas is a little easier to spot in this scenario since they have deals with fewer schools. The other thing to take a look at is the pipeline of players from top AAU programs that go to specific schools, I think people are just being ignorant if they don’t think there is more to the situation then they have a good relationship with the coach.
@Darrell, that may be true in most cases but I think the AAU coaches in question are the ones you see at the major showcase tourneys like the Peach Jam etc. A lot of these guys are out for themselves, just look at Chicago. I hate Illnois but Weber was set back because he didn’t give into some of their demands, almost all of these guys have BS newsletters you have to subscribe to. They just prey on kids and tell them not to go certain places for their own benefit not the kids.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
This is no surprise. Duke players are known for doing shady under the table type deals. See Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Why do you think this is a shot at j will?
March 11th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Calhoun baltantly gave Rudy Gay’s AAU team a ton of money to come up to UConn to play them so he could get Rudy Gay. I think it’s pretty obvious this happens now. Gary Williams is still pissed about this even though Rudy Gay was a college underachiever.
The funniest part about this whole thing is that the agency gave Love’s coach 250k so he would bring Love to their agency and then he didn’t even sign with them. Hilarious.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Jason Street comes to mind when reading this story. Also, for all the people who say how sleazy and shady agents are, how many of them are fans of Ari Gold?
March 11th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
While I disagree about this post only being intended as a shot at Jay Williams, this quote from Love is damn harsh.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Jay Williams just failed the Business Ethics question horribly. Should have went with Flaming Dog Poo and the Human Response.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Elton Brand should be commended by Clippers fans. He sacrificed his body for them for seven seasons, and then sacrificed his integrity so that they could unload him to the unsuspecting Sixers, all while saving face for the franchise and getting him another big contract. He knew he was done and didn’t want to eat up cap space for the clips. What a great guy.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Fixed for correctness…neither boozer nor brand took under the table deals…they just used them to get more money elsewhere.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Except for the millions of dollars?
That word and Gordon Gund should never be in the same sentence. Think before you type.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Then what do you call an under the table, illegal agreement that locks up a player for half of his true value? Let’s not sugarcoat it because he’s blind; he was trying to screw over Boozer, and Boozer turned the tables. I’m not saying Boozer is in the right in this instance…just saying that neither side was on the up and up.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
No. He could have just offered Boozer (as a former second rd pick) the qualifying offer, and he would have had to accept it.
He let him out of that deal, though, and got screwed. It was an awful decision on Gund’s part. No question about that. He should’ve just given him have the qualifying offer.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
You kidding me? Any chance to attach a Duke legend to a story which may have some unscrupulous angle. I don’t see why anyone pretends to care about this stuff anymore, the system is so corrupt and if you don’t cheat you lose.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Yes, he could have done that, and had Boozer for one more year dirt cheap and then watch him go for greener pastures (or paid him, whichever he preferred).
However, Gund tried to get Boozer to agree to a multiyear deal that would’ve given the Cavs an all-star post player for half the going rate for years. He didn’t forgo the qualifying offer out of the goodness of his heart. Again, Boozer screwed him over…but Gund was so eager* by the chance at getting talent on the super cheap that he made a stupid mistake.
*intially this was “blinded”, but even I am have some scruples.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
For some reason I recall that the Bulls paid him anyway. That plus his 3.5M rookie year salary.
Love is very good, one of the top rookies.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
He signed a 3-year, $16.34 million contract and they bought him out for $3 million after the accident.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:51 am
If Barrett funds his team through a foundation, it shouldn’t be too hard to find out where his money comes from and what he spends it on. Wetzel should dig a little deeper, but he has been on this story (AAU, shoe companies, agents) for years.