PORTLAND — Federal prosecutors in the basketball corruption trial that began Monday in New York reportedly told prospective jurors that 12 colleges could come up during the proceedings — the University of Oregon among them.
As first reported by Yahoo Sports, prosecutors wanted to disqualify any potential juror whose allegiance to a school might make them less than impartial. An Oregon-based Adidas executive and two others are accused of paying talented prep players to steer them to certain universities.
Four of the schools mentioned — Louisville, Miami, Kansas and North Carolina State — have already been implicated in the case. Former assistant coaches at Arizona, Oklahoma State and the University of Southern California have been charged in the scandal and will be tried separately. The other schools are Creighton, DePaul, LSU, Texas and Oregon.
It’s unclear in what capacity Oregon could be discussed in the landmark trial. Jimmy Stanton, a spokesman for the UO athletic department, said “We have received no communications from anyone relative to this case.” University officials learned the Eugene school were on prosecutors list from news reports Monday afternoon, Stanton said.
The fraud trial is focused on Jim Gatto, an executive for Oregon-based Adidas North America; Merl Code, a former Adidas contractor; and Christian Dawkins, a sports agent. They have been accused of paying talented prep players hundreds of thousands of dollars to entice them to play for Adidas-aligned schools
Outsiders are split on the significance of the case. The Washington Post reported Monday that the government’s case is tenuous and not likely to stem the flow of money in amateur sports. Yahoo Sports, meanwhile, is reporting that the government is sitting on evidence that will implicate some of the nation’s top collegiate programs, Hall of Fame coaches and some top players.
Jury selection got under way Monday. In addition to asking prospective jurors about the 13 schools, prosecutors also quizzed them about the NCAA, the chief administrator and enforcer of college sports, and whether they had competed in college sports. They also asked them whether they had ever worked in the sneaker business or Adidas specifically.
The case promises to give the outside world a rare glimpse of the sneaker industry’s sports marketers at work. Adidas, Nike and Under Armour, all of which have major operations in the Portland area, pay enormous dollars to put their logo on the best college programs. As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last spring, the companies have also emerged as the primary funders of elite youth basketball, where they compete to put their brand on players not yet in high school.
No one from Nike has been charged in the case.
Of the schools mentioned by prosecutors Monday, Oregon, Arizona, USC, Texas and several others are Nike programs. Louisville, Kansas and Miami are or were Adidas schools.
Under Coach Dana Altman, Oregon has grown to become one of the nation’s elite basketball programs, making it to the Final Four in 2017. The support and funding of Nike co-founder Phil Knight, himself a UO alum, and countless other deep-pocketed Nike officials has been instrumental in transforming Oregon into a formidable force in several sports.
