Dawkins is in prison. Will Wade is at home. The story is about sports, money, college basketball, and racism. It's an American story. The FBI's investigation into college basketball was a waste of time and helped prove how flawed the system is. Wade was fired as LSU's head coach last week after he was on an FBI wiretap talking to Dawkins about paying players. The NCAA's findings into what Wade was doing made LSU show him the door, not the feds. Wade is just a blip in the story, given the juicier chapters that are being overlooked. Dawkins tried to get a new trial a few weeks ago because he was guilty of taking $13,500 of government money and was working with an undercover FBI agent. We have to wait until May to find out what will happen to Carpenter when he is sentenced, as he is facing a maximum of one year in prison. Don't be surprised if he gets off with no jail time. It's just another example of how messed up this whole thing is, as Dawkins is currently serving an 18-month federal sentence, while his co-conspirators Merl Code and Jim Gatto are currently serving one-year sentences. Book Richardson was an assistant coach at Arizona. Sean Miller, Wade and Rick Pitino haven't seen handcuffs. All the Black assistant coaches and Dawkins are the ones that are actually being punished, even though the FBI initially went after them. The wiretaps of the conversation between Wade and Dawkins were made public in the 2020 documentary The Scheme. The transcript can be read here.
Dawkins said about Wade in the documentary that he was one hundred percent talking about money. He didn't get charged for anything because the government had all the information and evidence and nothing was happening on a criminal level. That was some G. He told the people that weren't with him that he had to keep his job and make millions of dollars. It is like the perfect storm. This is what life is all about. They are paying Will Wade a lot of money to win games.
LSU suspended Wade because of the documentary and wanted to talk to him about it. Wade refused to talk to his bosses until the investigation was over. Wade had a job until last week.
As we approach the start of the NCAA tournament, and as we are four months from the first anniversary of NIL, it makes you think about how all this happened because the FBI wanted to investigate corruption. Christian Dawkins should be the last person in prison.
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