Louisville men's basketball head coach Rick Pitino has reportedly been fired today amid allegations that an Adidas basketball executive worked with coaches from Louisville in an illegal scheme to pay high school recruits to play for the Cardinals.
Yesterday afternoon, Jim Gatto, the Director or Global Marketing for Adidas Basketball was arrested for allegedly paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to steer top prospects to Adidas sponsored colleges, including Louisville.
In addition to Gatto, the FBI charged four college basketball coaches including Auburn's assistant coach Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, USC assistant coach Tony Bland and Book Richardson from the University of Arizona.
While the University of Louisville nor any Louisville coaches have been formally accused, the school decided to fire Pitino today, as well as athletic director Tom Jurich.
Coach Pitino, who has won 770 games, made seven Final Four appearances and won two national championships, has maintained his innocence ever since the allegations came out.
Per TMZ Sports,
"These allegations come as a complete shock to me," Pitino said in a statement.
"If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorney's 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.
"Our fans and supporters deserve better, and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable."
Pitino and the University of Louisville have been involved in several scandals since he took over the job in the 2001-02 season, including the 2015 sex-for-pay scandal.
Check out some more details, as well as some reactions to Rick Pitino's latest scandal, below.
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