NCAA FBI College Basketball Probe: Josh Jackson, Markelle Fultz Among Players Who Received Illegal Benefits

A week ago, Yahoo Sports claimed that the FBI’s ongoing probe into the business side of college basketball could “fundamentally and indelibly alter the sport.” On Friday, Yahoo published documents from the probe that, in no uncertain terms, named more than two dozen former college basketball players who received impermissible benefits from a sports agency while they were being recruited to play college hoops.

Beyond that, the documents also showed exactly how much each player was paid and even listed things like meals and flights for the players’ families.

The gist of the story is that ASM Sports, a prominent sports agency with NBA clients like Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Lowry, gave out loans and other gifts to players and their families. That is noteworthy because, well, college athletes are legally amateurs who are not supposed to receive any kind of financial benefits outside of their respective scholarships until they leave school.

NCAA FBI College Basketball Corruption Probe: List of Schools, Players Involved

• Jarell Martin, now of the Memphis Grizzlies, received more than $52,000 when he played at LSU.

• Dallas Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith received $73,500 for his time at North Carolina State.

• First overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft Markelle Fultz received $10,000 at Washington.

• Isaiah Whitehead of the Brooklyn Nets got more than $37,000 at Seton Hall.

• “Bam” Adebayo of the Miami Heat got $36,500 at Kentucky.

• Toronto Raptors point guard Fred Van Vleet got a small loan of more than $1,000 at Wichita State.

Other College Players Who Allegedly Got Paid To Play

• Lavoy Allen (Temple)
• Anthony Brown (Stanford)
• Kyle Kuzma (Utah)
• Kendall Gray (Delaware State)
• Brendan Haywood (North Carolina)
• Elijah Johnson (Kansas)
• Kyle Lowry (Villanova)
• DJ Newbill (Penn. State)
• Nerlens Noel (Kentucky)
• Kyle O'Quinn (Norfolk State)
• Milt Palacio (Colorado St)
• Juan Palacios (Louisville)
• Malik Pope (San Diego State)
• Diamond Stone (Maryland)
• Maalik Wayns (Villanova)
• Chaz Williams (UMass)

NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement in response to the story, calling it evidence of “systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now.” Aside from direct loans to players, many of their parents also got meals, plane tickets and other cash advances. For example, former Kansas Jayhawk and current Phoenix Sun Josh Jackson’s mother got $2,700 from the agency.

The potential ramifications of this story coming out now are obvious, as these are top flight basketball programs preparing to play in the NCAA Tournament in the next few weeks. Louisville just vacated its 2013 national title and legendary coach Rick Pitino lost his job over this; it remains to be seen what could happen to other top programs like Kentucky, Duke and Kansas if these benefits to players are widespread enough.

However, advocates for college athletes getting paid will surely point to this as an example of the NCAA’s flawed system. Dennis Smith’s $73,500 loan pales in comparison to then-NC State coach Mark Gottfried’s salary of $2.5 million per year. Gottfried’s salary before he was fired was not a blip on the radar compared to the game’s top coaches, who earn around $5 to $7 million per year.