Former University of Utah basketball forward Kyle Kuzma is among a group of star players who received thousands of dollars from a sports agency while in college, according to an explosive Yahoo Sports report that was published Friday morning.
Kuzma, who now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, received $9,500 in what were termed loans, or cash advances, from an agency while he was at the U., the report says, citing bank records and other documents from an ongoing FBI investigation that has resulted in federal charges against three college assistant coaches.
Kuzma spoke to reporters before Friday night’s Lakers game in Los Angeles, but he did not confirm or deny the allegations. In a video posted on Twitter by Orange Country Register reporter Bill Oram, Kuzma was asked how he thought the folks at Utah reacted and whether he’d spoken to them.
“I don’t think they reacted at all, really,” Kuzma said. “Everything is allegedly whatever. It is what it is. Everything is going to come out, and people are going to say what they want to say and just try to increase whatever investigation they have going on.”
Kuzma’s inclusion in the report appears to have caught the Utah athletic department by surprise. In the aftermath of the FBI’s initial arrests in September, Ute men’s basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak had been outspoken about his frustrations associated with staying above board in recruiting while others cheated.
This fall, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott named Utah athletic director Chris Hill to a task force charged with addressing “issues that are threatening the integrity of collegiate athletics and to protect our student-athletes.”
“We learned this information this morning just like everyone else,” Hill said in a statement released Friday morning. “Unethical agents have been an issue in college athletics — particularly men’s basketball and football — for many years despite repeated educational efforts by the schools. Certainly this is a topic that our Pac-12 reform committee on NCAA men’s basketball is addressing.
“Personally, I welcome the scrutiny on the sport of men’s basketball because the behavior of some agents, along with reports of other illegal recruiting activities, is hurting the sport. Coach Krystkowiak has a great deal of integrity and runs a clean program, but this situation shows there are areas outside a coach’s control that need to be fixed.”
Krystkowiak has lauded Kuzma as a player who did things the right way. Krystkowiak said in an October radio appearance on ESPN 700’s “The Bill Riley Show” that someone called the coaching staff, claiming that the program would have to pay in order to get Kuzma’s high school transcript and bring him to campus on an official visit and pay again in order for him to commit. When brought to Kuzma’s attention at the time, according to Krystkowiak, the player paid his own way on an unofficial campus visit.
Talking with a group of reporters in an interview the next day, Krystkowiak said his point in making the comment was “that Kuz wasn’t looking for shortcuts. I don’t even know how much he was privy to some of that that took place behind the scenes.” Krystkowiak had been speaking of Kuzma as a positive example of a player having success and adhering to the rules.
“This situation came to my attention this morning, and I have absolutely no knowledge about it,” Krystkowiak said in a statement Friday. “At this point, these are allegations. I know we run a clean program, and my complete focus will be getting our squad ready for our game against USC.”
Salt Lake City Stars center Diamond Stone also is listed in the report, with documents indicating that he received $14,303 while he was a freshman at the University of Maryland. Utah Jazz center Tony Bradley is cited in the report for having a meal with an agent, though it is unclear whether that rises to an NCAA violation.
The documents “detail in meticulous fashion the expenditures of prominent former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports. They include expense reports and balance sheets that list cash advances, as well as entertainment and travel expenses for high school and college prospects and their families,” the Yahoo report says.
Yahoo Sports got access to hundreds of pages of documents in what has been a yearslong investigation by the Justice Department.
Among the other former players who received money from ASM, according to the documents, were former North Carolina State star and current Dallas Maverick Dennis Smith ($43,500); Isaiah Whitehead of Seton Hall ($26,136); LSU’s Tim Quarterman ($16,000); and Washington’s Markelle Fultz ($10,000), the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, who now plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Current players who allegedly received money include USC’s Bennie Boatwright and-or his father, Bennie Boatwright Sr. (at least $2,000), and Chimezie Metu and-or adviser Johnnie Parker ($2,000).
The Trojans play at Utah on Saturday.
Responding to the Yahoo Sports report, NCAA President Mark Emmert released a statement that said: “These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.”
— Reporter Kyle Goon contributed to this story.
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