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Nike allegedly offered $20k illicit payment to Romeo


madmax

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2 minutes ago, BADGERVOL said:

Question:

If i’m A top recruit and I don’t get “paid” why would I not expose this? If I’m Romeo and I don’t buy into this crap, why wouldn’t I announce “Yes. I was offered. I rejected it because I don’t want to be involved in that.” And by doing so throw tons of heat on Nike?

im assuming Romeo wouldn’t want to hurt his chances for when he is a star for endorsements.

Just answered your own question

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12 minutes ago, BADGERVOL said:

Question:

If i’m A top recruit and I don’t get “paid” why would I not expose this? If I’m Romeo and I don’t buy into this crap, why wouldn’t I announce “Yes. I was offered. I rejected it because I don’t want to be involved in that.” And by doing so throw tons of heat on Nike?

im assuming Romeo wouldn’t want to hurt his chances for when he is a star for endorsements.

Now that Romeo is out of the cesspool that is the NCAA he has absolutely no reason to say anything to tarnish his brand/image, by coming out with a statement that the NCAA is going to ignore anyway.

We're also coming up on his rookie season so he's likely focused on getting himself ready.

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28 minutes ago, madmax said:

I’m not overly worried about it. It really does make sense. Romeo was one of the best high school players, so of course shoe companies had at the very least considered paying him and his family. 

It still makes me uneasy. I’d rather just avoid recruiting the top of the top, if it means we can keep our noses clean. 

I'm not worried about it either.  For one, there's nothing in there that even hints that Langford accepted anything from Nike (it just seems so unlikely with his Addidas connections).  Secondly, it would put us under the same umbrella with Duke and there's no way the NCAA would do squat to them over these allegations of "approving an offer be made".

As to the last part, I too just find the whole thing a bit bothersome.  We all want an even playing field, but right now there is no such thing when it comes to the top players.  Another thing that stinks is that bringing this out (and I don't doubt what was written at all) it puts guys like Romeo under the microscope even though there's nothing in them that makes you think he did anything wrong or not.  Just because Nike discussed making an offer, that doesn't prove any involvement by the prospective "offerees".

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21 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

I think this is what Scott is talking about.

Look at June.

Not sure if the summer regional camps were instituted this year

Thanks.

I mean yeah I support the non-shoe sponsored camps but this only a week period, not a summer long circuit. I don't think it's attainable for an entire summer. The only way to abolish AAU would be all of the state high school associations coming together and agreeing to allow basketball be a year round sport where teams can stay together, practice, and play and scrimmage. That will never happen. 

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3 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

Thanks.

I mean yeah I support the non-shoe sponsored camps but this only a week period, not a summer long circuit. I don't think it's attainable for an entire summer. The only way to abolish AAU would be all of the state high school associations coming together and agreeing to allow basketball be a year round sport where teams can stay together, practice, and play and scrimmage. That will never happen. 

I think they do allow some of that during the summer now because high school teams can go to camps and play in some summer leagues.  I remember back around 2006 when my nephew played HS ball they played in some league in Anderson during the summer.  Also go with my idea that only one company sponsors all of the NCAA so the NCAA can use some of that money to sponsor summer basketball.  Just say Nike had the sponsorship so there would be no ADDias trying to persuade players to go to a certain school because Addias does not have a contract with any team.

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Two more thoughts:

With this getting publicity now, could it be the impetus for the FBI to begin looking into Nike and Nike schools & players?  If these documents suggest that there is a system for Nike to pay money "under the table" that would, presumably, mean somebody is getting paid and not paying taxes on it - and that is what the federal government cares about.

Also, the part of the article that reads ".... asking whether they would be "willing to do ... whatever may be needed for the Zion/Romeo situations as well as the money we're now going to do for the [unnamed] kid in Michigan." " Certainly seems like a player at Michigan was either offered or paid, and with them being a Nike school, I'd think they're the ones most implicated in this article.

Again, it involves the "creepy porn lawyer", so it has a stench of desperation but I think everybody believes that Nike pays like Addidas was caught doing.

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20 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Just say Nike had the sponsorship so there would be no ADDias trying to persuade players to go to a certain school because Addias does not have a contract with any team.

That still wouldn't stop Adidas from trying to pay somebody. Shoe companies are paying players in high school so they sign with them once they become professional. It wouldn't stop if the NCAA put a regulation on it.

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17 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

Two more thoughts:

With this getting publicity now, could it be the impetus for the FBI to begin looking into Nike and Nike schools & players?  If these documents suggest that there is a system for Nike to pay money "under the table" that would, presumably, mean somebody is getting paid and not paying taxes on it - and that is what the federal government cares about.

Also, the part of the article that reads ".... asking whether they would be "willing to do ... whatever may be needed for the Zion/Romeo situations as well as the money we're now going to do for the [unnamed] kid in Michigan." " Certainly seems like a player at Michigan was either offered or paid, and with them being a Nike school, I'd think they're the ones most implicated in this article.

Again, it involves the "creepy porn lawyer", so it has a stench of desperation but I think everybody believes that Nike pays like Addidas was caught doing.

I believe the unnamed Michigan kid is Brian Bowen committed to Adidas sponsored Louisville. I think Nike knew Adidas was paying Bowen and they were trying to counter.

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Another thing I would love to see changed in summer ball is that it would be more of a instructional camp.  Today it is just about traveling around the country and playing as many games as possible and not solely on getting better.  If it were more of a camp setting with games at the end I think would be better for coaches to really evaluate the recruits.

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2 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

That still wouldn't stop Adidas from trying to pay somebody. Shoe companies are paying players in high school so they sign with them once they become professional. It wouldn't stop if the NCAA put a regulation on it.

I thought some of it was surrounding bribing assistant coaches and getting players to certain schools.

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22 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I thought some of it was surrounding bribing assistant coaches and getting players to certain schools.

Two different parts of the FBI probe.

Agents like Christian Dawkins were bribing college assistants to try and steer certain collegiate players to his sports agency once they became professional. In exchange he would try and steer certain high school players to their universities.

Adidas had a hand in steering Brian Bowen to Louisville.

The end result for Nike and Adidas is to get these guys to sign for them while amateur athletes for when they turn professional. Nike, Adidas, etc can't (legally) profit off kids like Romeo while they are amateurs as they are not permitted to sign endorsement deals. They try and steer them towards the colleges they sponsor so they can keep contact. If Adidas wanted Romeo, they wouldn't have wanted him to go to a school like Duke where he would be playing in Nike gear for a year which could ultimately change his mind. 

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Just now, IndyResident16 said:

Two different parts of the trails.

Agents like Christian Dawkins were bribing college assistants to try and steer certain collegiate players to his sports agency once they became professional. In exchange he would try and steer certain high school players to their universities.

Adidas had a hand in steering Brian Bowen to Louisville.

The end result for Nike and Adidas is to get these guys to sign for them while amateur athletes for when they turn professional. Nike, Adidas, etc can't (legally) profit of kids like Romeo while they are amateurs as they are not permitted to sign endorsement deals. They try and steer them towards the colleges they sponsor so they can keep contact. If Adidas wanted Romeo, they wouldn't have wanted him to go to a school like Duke where he would be playing in Nike gear for a year which could ultimately change his mind. 

I see that but you don't think these companies are not steering them to the best schools  so they get the most publicity possible. 

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11 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

I believe the unnamed Michigan kid is Brian Bowen committed to Adidas sponsored Louisville. I think Nike knew Adidas was paying Bowen and they were trying to counter.

Makes sense.  That would tend to absolve UM from involvement (which is good).

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15 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I see that but you don't think these companies are not steering them to the best schools  so they get the most publicity possible. 

I definitely think they are, but if the NCAA only regulated Nike sponsorship's, it still isn't going to stop somebody like Adidas from giving the good players money under the table while still in school to try and sign with them once they turn professional.

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All just more proof of what the NBA's prohibition on kids going pro from H.S.  has done.  I suppose they could still "invest" in a kid who's going to play in college, but I'd guess they're mostly interested in the kids that are likely to be NBA stars (and would be most likely to forego college). 

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16 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

All just more proof of what the NBA's prohibition on kids going pro from H.S.  has done.  I suppose they could still "invest" in a kid who's going to play in college, but I'd guess they're mostly interested in the kids that are likely to be NBA stars (and would be most likely to forego college). 

And that's why I think if the NBA abolishes the OAD rule, the majority of this goes away. Shoe companies wouldn't really care where somebody went to college if they could sign them right out of high school.

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Given what the NCAA has done to others with more evidence than this, I'm not worried anything will happen to IU. If somehow something did, the worst case scenario to me is Romeo is somehow deemed to have been ineligible and we vacate last season in all the games he played. Given how last season turned out, not a big loss.

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10 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

I definitely think they are, but if the NCAA only regulated Nike sponsorship's, it still isn't going to stop somebody like Adidas from giving the good players money under the table while still in school to try and sign with them once they turn professional.

Just look at Zion because everyone thought he was headed to Clemson or maybe UK and out of nowhere on decision day he chose Duke.  Not sure what shoe company Clemson had but after he chose Duke out of nowhere I thought something was up.

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19 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Just look at Zion because everyone thought he was headed to Clemson or maybe UK and out of nowhere on decision day he chose Duke.  Not sure what shoe company Clemson had but after he chose Duke out of nowhere I thought something was up.

Clemson and UK are both Nike. Everyone actually thought he was going to Kansas as he played for an Adidas sponsored AAU program and in the trial it was brought up that Kansas was willing to pay for his services. I think he ended up at Duke because Duke in some capacity employed his mother.

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17 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

All I heard on TV and the internet was that they thought he was going to Clemson

I think Clemson at once was a big favorite as it was his hometown team. But then he played for an Adidas sponsored AAU team and many thought Kansas was going to be his destination. Documents were released in the FBI trial that Zion's dad was asking about housing and employment opportunities in Lawrence. Zion's mom ended up in a big house in Durham. 

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14 minutes ago, cybergates said:

Given what the NCAA has done to others with more evidence than this, I'm not worried anything will happen to IU. If somehow something did, the worst case scenario to me is Romeo is somehow deemed to have been ineligible and we vacate last season in all the games he played. Given how last season turned out, not a big loss.

This.  We’re going on two years since this “scandal” broke, and absolutely nothing has happened or is going to happen to any prominent program.  And like others have mentioned, it seems pretty likely that Romeo never took any money from Nike, considering he never played in the EYBL.

And to be honest, I wouldn’t really mind that 1-12 stretch getting wiped off the books anyway, lol.

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