BATON ROUGE (KATC) Yahoo Sports reports that the middle man Will Wade was critical of in his wiretapped conversation with Christian Dawkins is Shannon Forman, a known basketball fixture in Baton Rouge.
In the conversation Wade felt a middle man was looking to make more money in the exchange.
“The problem was, I know why he didn’t take it now, it was [expletive] tilted toward the family a little bit,” Wade said. “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.”
“It was a [expletive] hell of a [expletive] offer,” he continued. “Hell of an offer…. Especially for a kid who is going to be a two- or three-year kid.”
Yahoo Sports latest report chronicles emails between Dawkins and ASM Sports leadership in August of 2016 discussing Forman and several players.
“I met with … Shannon Forman, who has Javonte Smart (sic). [Forman] had two kids in the Elite 24 game that have a shot down the line. And he also wants to give us Brandon Sampson,” the email says.
Javonte Smart and teammate Naz Reid played in that game. Sampson was a sophomore at LSU during this time. He’d turn pro after his junior season.
Tuesday, Smart called Forman a mentor. LSU interim head coach Tony Benford said he is aware of a relationship between the two. Forman declined comment to Yahoo Sports.
LSU suspended Smart for one game while doing an internal investigation on the matter. Wade has been suspended indefinitely for not cooperating with school officials.
Both Wade and Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller will be subpoenaed for an April 22 federal basketball corruption trial.