Every major apparel company secretly pays college basketball prospects.
That was the defense Tuesday from an Adidas executive facing wire fraud charges for payouts to the families of some of the most sought-after college basketball players in the country.
The argument by Casey Donnelly, an attorney for Adidas’ head of global sports marketing, Jim Gatto, came during opening remarks of the trial that is expected to highlight the seedy underbelly of the NCAA, where universities make a fortune off unpaid athletes being courted for future sponsorship deals.
Gatto is charged with seeking to pay $100,000 to the father of Brian Bowen Jr. so that the top prospect would declare for University of Louisville, which is sponsored by Adidas. Such a payout violates NCAA rules and results in a prospect being ineligible for a scholarship.
Gatto’s offer to Brian Bowen Sr. was simply one of several attempts to “level the playing field” in light of competing offers, Donnelly said.
“Jim believed Nike and others were also making payments,” she said.
“Oregon, a Nike school, offered Brian Bowen astronomical amounts of money,” Donnelly said.
She said that Silvio De Sousa, a power forward who plays for Kansas, was offered $20,000 to attend Maryland, which is sponsored by Under Armour.
Nassir Little, who plays for University of North Carolina, was offered $150,000 to attend the Nike-sponsored University of Arizona, Donnelly said.
The requests to “help” a university recruit a player came from team coaches themselves, Donnelly said, without sharing names.
“In Jim’s mind, when the coaches ask for Jim’s help, he thinks he’s helping the universities,” she said.
“A successful basketball program is the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket (for a university),” she added.
Gatto is charged alongside Merl Code, who prosecutors say helped the Adidas exec build relationships to win “the shoe wars” against Nike. A sports agent, Christian Dawkins, allegedly acted as an intermediary between the Bowen family and Adidas.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eli Mark said the trio had misled universities to give scholarships to ineligible players.
“No school would accept the risk of playing a student athlete whose family had agreed to receive $100,000,” Mark said.
Bowen’s father will testify for the government and is the trial’s most-anticipated witness. The trial is expected to last four weeks.
The coach of the Louisville Cardinals, Rick Pitino was fired last year after he was linked to the federal investigation into Bowen’s commitment to the team.
Bowen is now playing in an Australian basketball league.