Because his upcoming HBO documentary contains some previously unheard wiretapped conversations involving Arizona coach Sean Miller and agent Christian Dawkins, director Pat Kondelis is aware he might be a lightning rod for some Wildcats fans.
But Kondelis said Thursday that those wiretaps are just a small part of a much bigger story heโs telling in โThe Scheme,โ a documentary scheduled for a March 31 release that details Dawkinsโ role in an FBI investigation that ultimately came up short in derailing college basketballโs big names.
One of the wiretaps played includes Dawkins telling Miller that handlers of five-star recruit Nassir Little โdefinitely wanted to get some (expletive) for themselves,โ and Miller responding by asking, โMiami doesnโt have an advantage over us in that area, do they?โ
In another, former Arizona assistant coach Book Richardson tells Dawkins that Miller has been paying โ10โ per month for Deandre Ayton, who had just arrived on campus when the conversation was recorded in July 2017.
โI know thereโs a whole lot of delusional Arizona fans that are on social media right now that will convince themselves that that doesnโt mean what they donโt want it to mean,โ Kondelis said. โBut I think the other part of this is that I take severe issue with any of this being framed in a way that Christian or HBO or myself is attacking Sean Miller and (LSU coach) Will Wade. Nobody cares. I donโt care at all. I mean, I donโt want to see anybody get fired. Christian says very plainly that the coaches that were paying players, he thinks, are good guys and the ones that arenโt are bad guys.โ
In May, a jury found Dawkins guilty of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. Dawkins told a Star correspondent on the courthouse steps that he never had a conversation with Miller about delivering Ayton despite a February 2018 ESPN.com report that they discussed a $100,000 payment. And Kondelis said Thursday that Dawkins has made it clear that he never talked with Miller about paying Ayton.
Miller denied the ESPN report at the time, saying he โnever discussed with Christian Dawkins paying Deandre Ayton to attend the University of Arizonaโ and saying that he never met or spoke to Dawkins until after Ayton verbally committed to the UA.
But Kondelis said Dawkins โdid have that conversation with Bookโ on July 20, 2017 โ a conversation that is played in the movie.
โWeโll see how Sean plays it out,โ Dawkins tells Richardson in โThe Schemeโ. โYou know what Iโm saying? Weโll see if heโs a man of his word. Because he brought it up to me.โ
Richardson replies, โYeah, โcause he need help. You know what he doing per month? I told you. Ten.โ Richardson, who spent three months in prison after accepting a plea deal, declined to participate in the film.
Of that conversation, Kondelis says:
โChristian again, ironically, is not even the person that asks,โ Kondelis said. โBook says, โYou know what heโs doing a month? And he says โ10.โ And then Christianโs like, โYeah, heโs paying some real money.โโ
Kondelis said even though that call is receiving โso much attention, to me, it doesnโt really matter,โ since he was trying to show a bigger picture in the documentary.
โThe Schemeโ also plays a wiretapped call between Wade and Dawkins in which Wade says he made a โstrong-assโ offer for recruit Javonte Smart. That call was reported by Yahoo Sports in March 2018 but not aired previously.
Yahooโs Dan Wetzel, who was interviewed extensively in โThe Scheme,โ said on his podcast this week that the documentary shows how recruiting can work in the shadows of NCAA amateurism rules.
โI donโt care whether Will Wade is the coach or not; I donโt care if Sean Miller is the coach or not,โ Wetzel said. โ... but if you listen to these tapes, and you think Will Wade and Sean Miller are not in on it, I canโt tell you what to believe. OK? But Iโm not going to be that naive.โ
Not only are issues with the NCAAโs amateurism stance raised during the documentary, but so are issues with the FBIโs investigation.
The FBI held a news conference following the arrest of Richardson, Dawkins and others where officials described what they said was a scheme: Shoe companies and agents would funnel payments to players via agents and coaches in exchange for promises to steer those players to sign with them as clients after turning pro.
And at the end of the investigation, an investor in Dawkinsโ firm revealed that she was actually an undercover FBI agent. Dawkins said the FBI told him during a meeting in a hotel suite that he โwould be fineโ if he could deliver information about names such as Rick Pitino, agent Andy Miller and Sean Miller.
Instead, Dawkins said in the movie, he told FBI agents that he wanted to call a lawyer. As soon as he did, Dawkins said, the doors to the suite burst open with agents pointing machine guns at him.
โAt this point, I thought they were just gonna (expletive) kill me,โ Dawkins said in the movie. โI die because of basketball.โ
Dawkinsโ refusal to cooperate, Kondelis believes, is a big reason why the FBI never charged bigger names. Kondelis said Dawkins was not paid to participate in the film, but โdid receive something for providing archival materials.โ
โThey wanted him to wear a wire right there in the room,โ Kondelis said. โAnd as heโs being arrested, Sean Miller calls him. So theyโre saying, โHey, wear a wire. We want you to call these people.โ They were going to try to get Christian to bait them into more incriminating things to say on the phone.โ
That was only one of the potential issues the movie raises with the investigation.
Kondelis said itโs possible that the FBI wound down its efforts after an undercover agent was accused of spending FBI money on gambling and other personal uses, according to a Wall Street Journal report, and that the FBI may have been pushing the lines too close to entrapment. An undercover agent repeatedly pushed Dawkins to pay coaches, something Dawkins said he resisted doing.
โI think thatโs definitely plausible,โ Kondelis said. โI donโt know for sure. Again, the point is when all these people were arrested, (the FBI) went in front of the cameras and said, โWe got it, we got it, and thereโs more coming and we know exactly whatโs happening.โโ
Kondelis noted that, until the investigation began, breaking NCAA rules was not considered a federal crime โ โso thatโs a real stretch on their part to begin with,โ he said โ while noting that investigators looked into Adidas when Nike โadmits to kind of openly doingโ the same things. (A Nike attorney said during Michael Avenattiโs trial in February that โwe never took the position that there were no payments to players.โ)
The FBI declined to be interviewed for โThe Scheme.โ
โIt just doesnโt make sense,โ Kondelis said. โAnd nobody knows the real answer other than the FBI and the Southern District themselves. But I think you cannot deny that they clearly intended to bring down huge-name coaches. They got a hell of a lot of evidence. They got them on wiretaps. I havenโt heard all of them and I donโt even know the total number that were recorded, but thereโs a hell of a lot more than what I heard.
โAnd they stopped. And not only did they stop, but then they started to protect them and would not even allow them to step foot in court.
โThatโs pretty shocking. Thatโs pretty shocking.โ
