Sean Miller Taped By FBI Discussing $100,000 Payment To Secure Deandre Ayton

[RealGM Wiretap]

A conversation between Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins in which they discussed paying $100,000 to ensure Deandre Ayton signed with Arizona was intercepted by FBI wiretaps.

Miller and Dawkins allegedly had multiple conversations about Ayton.

When Dawkins asked Miller if he should work with assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson to finalize their agreement, Miller told Dawkins he should deal directly with him when it came to money, the sources said.

Ayton is one of the best freshmen in the country and is expected to be a top selection in the 2018 NBA Draft.

Richardson was one of four assistant coaches arrested by FBI agents in September. Richardson is charged with six felonies: conspiracy to commit bribery, solicitation of bribes by an agent of a federally funded organization, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy and travel act conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 60 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.

Via Mark Schlabach/ESPN

[alienpick]

60 years in prison for trying to get a kid to play at your school? That's messed

[macNcheese3]

60 years in prison for trying to get a kid to play at your school? That's messed

Big time, welcome 2 America

[xchange55]

Committing 6 felonies JUST for trying to get a kid to play at your school? That's messed

Fixed it for you.

[chipchipperson]

This whole thing is **** disgraceful. And by "this whole thing" I mean the time, money and manpower spent to uncovering the absolutely unheard of practice of paying players a infinitesimal fraction of what their skills would be worth in a free market. The only thing more embarrassing than these articles is the jerk offs in the comments actually acting as if anyone other than the ncaa/nba is responsible for this. A glorified slave labor force attempting to squeeze some semblance of money out of the people who make millions of off their lifetime of hard work... What a travesty.

[xJumpManx]

Death Penelty for BAsketball at Arizona

[alienpick]

Committing 6 felonies JUST for trying to get a kid to play at your school? That's messed

Fixed it for you.

Yeah he knew the rules and broke them so he should face punishment, but 60 yrs and 1.5 million? That's murder or serial rapist sentence territory; AND they don't get fined 1.5 million. Maybe 5 yrs or something, ok, but 60? Over recruitment? Was he using tax payers money to pay these kids or something?

[Wo1verine]

Laws need to be changed ridiculous players should be paid **** awful ..

[HangTime]

Student athletes are more athlete than student. They should be paid.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

In case you can't see above tweet and just the number, it reads

Mark Ennis‏
@MarkEnnis
Emmert on CBS just said the latest new regarding Miller didn’t come from the federal government. All but explicitly saying it is Dawkins’ lawyer leaking this stuff.

[Cactus Jack]

This is why I can't take the NCAA & college ball seriously. I hope they publicly crucify Calipari next.

[LeMasta]

60 years for that? Most stupid **** I've heard all day.

[CH Smoot]

Who are Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins? Awesome article.

[Tussin33]

60 years??? Jesus. That’s life in prison

[Javier Acosta]

Committing 6 felonies JUST for trying to get a kid to play at your school? That's messed

Fixed it for you.

Yeah he knew the rules and broke them so he should face punishment, but 60 yrs and 1.5 million? That's murder or serial rapist sentence territory; AND they don't get fined 1.5 million. Maybe 5 yrs or something, ok, but 60? Over recruitment? Was he using tax payers money to pay these kids or something?

60, he would get less for raping Ayton. This is crazy.

[Cassius]

Fixed it for you.

Yeah he knew the rules and broke them so he should face punishment, but 60 yrs and 1.5 million? That's murder or serial rapist sentence territory; AND they don't get fined 1.5 million. Maybe 5 yrs or something, ok, but 60? Over recruitment? Was he using tax payers money to pay these kids or something?

60, he would get less for raping Ayton. This is crazy.

[CobraCommander]

This is why I can't take the NCAA & college ball seriously. I hope they publicly crucify Calipari next.

As long as they get coach K and every other coach paying players at the same time (fuqua grad btw). Honestly I dont want them to get Coach K...but if the game is played by paying the players there is no way for big school coach to to compete without paying the players. With that said...the schools pay millions to the coaches to win. Coaches cant win without high talent players. Coaches cant get high talent without paying for tha players. Coaches cant make millions without winning. The cycle is obvious-to me anyway in the simplest economic way.

You either stop paying the coaches MILLIONS to coach...which is essentially MILLIONS to recruite talent and you take away the incentive for the coaches to pay the players illegally OR you pay the players openly OR something else... putting Sean Miller in jail for that long for essentially doing what everyone else is doing seems similar to how we currently have all these poor people in jail on weed possession charges when clearly our outrage and war on drugs was misguided when it came to marijuana (and I dont use). Only when NCAA accepts that it really doesnt have a problem with paying kids to come to their schools...they just dont want it publicize...will they be able to have a honest dialogue and then make change. Coach K getting caught and Coach K speaking openly about paying players would open the doors to honest dialogue. The coaches that people consider scum like Calipari or people dont know like Sean Miller wont make a dent in the “problem”... this isnt like a doctor abusing girls...this is a bunch of highly talented young people getting paid for their services. In the case of a one and done...they not even finishing a school year so its BS to think the players getting anything financially out of going to school...apart from auditioning for the NBA. What happens when that audition proves the player isnt NBA level talent. That player may have made more money at one time to go play in college than they ever will again. THINK ABOUT THAT... when was the last time some one gave you 100k in a lump sum? So yeah i agree with you go get all the coaches...and all the players...in the nba. College basketball might be better for it.

[Psubs]

Laws need to be changed ridiculous players should be paid **** awful ..

These aren't laws, these are private rules and regulations. FBI has nothing better to do that this?

Are they considering it income / tax law?

[HotelVitale]

Committing 6 felonies JUST for trying to get a kid to play at your school? That's messed

Fixed it for you.

Yeah he knew the rules and broke them so he should face punishment, but 60 yrs and 1.5 million? That's murder or serial rapist sentence territory; AND they don't get fined 1.5 million. Maybe 5 yrs or something, ok, but 60? Over recruitment? Was he using tax payers money to pay these kids or something?

Google basic legal stuff, folks. That's the max penalty for that category of infraction--meaning if someone had done this sort of thing and caused enormous amount of harm and ruined economies or helped terrorism or something, they could be given that sort of penalty. Obviously this guy's not going to get anything like that.

Also for those freaking out about the legality, this is textbook fraud/fixing, and that's a big part of what the FBI does. I think it's a stupid case for the FBI to put resources into but it's the same basic idea of fraud as buying votes or investors buying info from corps--exchanging money secretly and off-the-books to circumvent on-the-books rules. I'm in favor of NCAA paying athletes but there's no reason you all can't follow what's happening and why.

[I_Never Lied]

Fixed it for you.

Yeah he knew the rules and broke them so he should face punishment, but 60 yrs and 1.5 million? That's murder or serial rapist sentence territory; AND they don't get fined 1.5 million. Maybe 5 yrs or something, ok, but 60? Over recruitment? Was he using tax payers money to pay these kids or something?

Google basic legal stuff, folks. That's the max penalty for that category of infraction--meaning if someone had done this sort of thing and caused enormous amount of harm and ruined economies or helped terrorism or something, they could be given that sort of penalty. Obviously this guy's not going to get anything like that.

Also for those freaking out about the legality, this is textbook fraud/fixing, and that's a big part of what the FBI does. I think it's a stupid case for the FBI to put resources into but it's the same basic idea of fraud as buying votes or investors buying info from corps--exchanging money secretly and off-the-books to circumvent on-the-books rules. I'm in favor of NCAA paying athletes but there's no reason you all can't follow what's happening and why.

The law was created so people (FBI workers/Law enforcement) could have jobs. No one is helped by prosecuting this.