Report: FBI has wiretap of Will Wade discussing ‘offer’ made to recruit leading up to prospect’s commitment to LSU
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Based on a new report, LSU’s dream season on the basketball court may one day be removed from the record books.
According to an explosive report from Yahoo! Sports, the FBI has audio recordings of LSU head coach Will Wade discussing an offer made directly to a player. While what exactly Wade meant when he claims an “offer” was made is not stated by the LSU coach, the exchange described by Yahoo! Sports is pretty damning.
Wade had several phone conversations with former agent Christian Dawkins, who was recently convicted in the NCAA corruption trial following an FBI investigation into college basketball, where he strongly implies money offers were made to a prospect.
While Javonte Smart’s name is not specifically stated by Wade, the name “Smart” is found in the exchanges LSU’s coach had with the now-convicted Dawkins. According to Yahoo! Sports, here is how the exchange went down:
Wade: “I was thinking last night on this Smart thing. I’ll be honest with you, I’m [expletive] tired of dealing with the thing. Like I’m just [expletive] sick of dealing with the [expletive]. Like, this should not be that [expletive] complicated.”
Wade: “Dude. I went to him with a [expletive] strong-ass offer about a month ago. [Expletive] strong.
Wade: “The problem was, I know why he didn’t take it now, it was [expletive] tilted toward the family a little bit. It was tilted toward taking care of the mom, taking care of the kid. Like it was tilted towards that. Now I know for a fact he didn’t explain everything to the mom. I know now, he didn’t get enough of the piece of the pie in the deal.”
Dawkins: “Hmmmm.”
Wade: “It was a [expletive] hell of a [expletive] offer. Hell of an offer.”
Dawkins: “Okay.”
Wade: “Especially for a kid who is going to be a two- or three-year kid.”
According to Yahoo! Sports reporting, the FBI has call logs showing three calls by Dawkins to Wade between June 19, 2017, and June 30, 2017. Smart publicly committed to LSU on June 30, 2017, via Twitter.
LSU is currently tied at the top of the SEC standings heading into the final game of the regular season.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
