Former Duke star Jay Williams can relate to this week’s blockbuster FBI investigation into corrupt college basketball practices. He has had first hand experience.
After a motorcycle accident short circuited his NBA career and before Williams went on to reinvent as an analyst for ESPN, Williams worked as a recruiter for Ceruzzi Sports and Entertainment from 2007 through 2009. During that time, he told ESPN’s Outside the Lines that he funneled $250,000 to Kevin Love’s AAU coach, Pat Barrett, while serving as a representative for that New York City firm.
“I know at the time, we gave an AAU coach for a guy named Kevin Love, who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers,’’ he told OTL. “Now, at the time, we were also giving other players money because you were allowed to give players money through their AAU programs.’’
The meeting Williams described occurred in 2008—Love’s only year in college– between Love, Barrett and Williams after a UCLA game, according to a story in Yahoo.com sports that was initially printed the following year and was re-told yesterday in USA Today.
Love, a consensus first team All-America selection and the Pac-10 Player of the Year, told Yahoo.com he wanted to go out to an N-Out-Burger with his family after another UCLA victory,’’ Williams said in the story. But Barrett was waiting outside Pauley Pavilion locker room, pleading for Love to come with him instead.
The two had known each other since Love was in fifth grade. Love played two years for Barrett’s Southern California All Stars’ travel team and as a result said he felt obligated to go. What Love apparently didn’t know was a New York sports agency had donated $250,000 to Barrett’s team under the promise Barrett could deliver players such as Kevin Love as a client— would also be there.
When Love arrived at Mr. Chow, the well-known Chinese restaurant in Beverly Hills, he was met by a group that included Williams, the former national player of the year and a 2002 lottery pick.
Williams confirmed the 2009 report on OTL and mentioned Love did not sign with the agency and mentioned Williams’ motorcycle crash as a reason. “If I was going to sign with the agent, why would I go with a guy, no offense who crashed his motorcycle into a tree,’’ Love told Yahoo.com “I’m not going to go with a guy who is reckless.’’
After the story broke, the agency was investigated by the NBA. Love went on to enter the 2008 NBA draft and was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the third pick in the first round.