Rick Pitino, the highest paid coach in college basketball, was fired by Louisville on Wednesday, Sports Illustrated reports. It came a day after federal investigators charged 10 people with fraud and corruption related to paying high school players to attend certain colleges.
Representatives from Adidas reportedly paid a high school player’s family $100,000 at the request of a Louisville coach, according to federal prosecutors.
On Tuesday, assistant coaches at Auburn, the University of Arizona, University of Southern California and Oklahoma State were charged, and the FBI and federal prosecutors in New York arrested James Gatto, director of global marketing for Adidas basketball. He was charged with conspiring with coaches to pay players to attend certain schools sponsored by Adidas.
Also see: Ex-NBA star Chuck Person, Adidas executive charged in NCAA basketball corruption probe
“The picture painted by the charges brought today is not a pretty one,’’ said Joon Kim, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Kim also said that coaches at some of the nation’s top programs were caught “soliciting and accepting cash bribes.”
Pitino, 65, said in a released statement after the charges were announced, “These allegations come as a complete shock to me.”
“If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorneys Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville,” he said. “Our fans and supporters deserve better and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable.”
In 2014, he told The Wall Street Journal, “I think we need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of young athletes.”
Pitino, who made $7.7 million last year, is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. While with Louisville from 2001 to 2017, the team made the Final Four three times.
