A week or so back HBO had a sports documentary on called "The Scheme". I wanted to watch it, forgotten about it and then remembered that we have On Demand, and that HBO replays stuff all the time. I found it, recorded it and finished it yesterday, and I loved it. Let’s discuss

"The Scheme" follows the embarrassing FBI investigation into Christian Dawkins relationship with high school basketball stars and whether or not he gave coaches money as well as players. I fully believe, and this doc furthers that belief, that Dawkins did not deal with coaches. He was friendly with them, and he talked to assistants, but he did not do anything that most people do, or do not do, when they deal with major head coaches dealing with big time shoe deals. It started with Sonny Vaccaro, and it is still going real, real strong today. In fact, my team Michigan, lost out on two big time recruits last night and today, and after watching "The Scheme", I am curious as to why one kid decided to go play pro overseas, although that actually makes sense because the kid can get paid to play right now, and the other kid chose Arizona State, which I believe is an Adidas school, over Michigan, which is Jordan Brand. I wonder if any of that went into their decisions.

Anyway, I found "The Scheme" to be very well made, but extremely eye opening. I have been on both sides of paying college athletes. When I was younger, thought that a scholarship was more than enough. Then I grew up and realized that was asinine, and that some kids bring in millions to the schools they go to. If a coach can make money hand over fist, and they can pay their assistants a million plus a year, why can't the kids, who bring in the majority of the money, get anything? Why are they treated like indentured servants? Why can't they make choices to further themselves and their families? Why can't they get something more?

As for the show, "The Scheme" introduces us to Christian Dawkins, who's name I didn't know until two years ago, and he seems to have the same questions. He was a player that was okay, good enough to play varsity at a very good high school as a sophomore, but he didn't have the tools to go all the way. He decided then that he was going to be in the business of rated and ranking and getting high school kids into good college basketball programs. He started a blog at first that blew up. He then started to meet people. He got a shoe deal for an AAU team when he was 17 years old. He made moves because of his relationship with other high school players. He knew his crowd, he knew how to market them and he ran with it. He went so far as to join an agency as a "runner". They called him an "agent", but what he did was get high profile players for the agency he worked for to sign with them. He then would find the next kid. He got guys like Malachi Richardson and Elfird Payton, former high first round picks. He then made a mistake, what they called "Uber Gate", and spent way too much of those guys money, he says by mistake, on Uber rides. He was fired from the agency, and that was when he decided to start his own business. This was also when the FBI got involved. There was so much stuff that went into this investigation, this pointless investigation, that it needs to be made into a live action movie. The FBI had two agents pose as money people to try and get Dawkins to get coaches involved. They had another agent type guy, Marty Blazer, working for them as well. They had phones tapped. They had fraud. They used the FBI's money to try and further their case. They tried to film Dawkins doing illicit things with coaches. They tried it all really. And Dawkins is no saint, more on that in a minute. But, the FBI flubbed this thing big time. They kept trying and pushing for Dawkins to get big name coaches involved. Coaches like Sean Miller, Will Wade and Rick Pitino. They wanted to take them all down. But, Dawkins kept insisting that he doesn't deal with head coaches. He dealt with assistants, and more importantly, players. He would tell the FBI informant, or try to explain during phone calls, how absurd it would be to get head coaches involved. He kept telling him it was easier, and quieter to deal with players and assistants. The FBI paid no mind to that, and they tried to take Dawkins down a bit too early. They tried to catch him in the act in Vegas, and while they may have been able to bring up some charges, they didn't do the damage they hoped. I, like a lot of people, thought that this was going to be the death of some major schools, but it really wasn't. Sean Miller is still at Arizona. Kansas was the favorite to win the title. Will Wade still has a job. Creighton was a top 25 team this year. The only person who got hit by this, besides Dawkins, was Rick Pitino, and he is already back in the college game, after one year coaching overseas.

"The Scheme" only made me further despise the NCAA and all their cronies. The fact that they wasted tax payer's money and time is crazy. The fact that they acted all high and mighty, and basically did nothing to the people who should have gotten in trouble, Will Wade and Sean Miller mostly, is ridiculous. The fact that Dawkins had to spend tons of time in court, and a year and a day in jail, is utterly insane. Yes, what he did was immoral and wrong and is against NCAA rules, he did nothing that hundreds and hundreds of people before him have done. Every major school has a guy like Dawkins working for them. I'm 100 percent positive coaches like Coach K and John Calipari and Miller and Wade and Bill Self all have guys like Dawkins, or ties to Dawkins. That is the cost of winning and recruiting at the level they continue to recruit.

I really enjoyed this doc, I highly recommend sports fans watch it and I one hundred percent believe that Dawkins is not the bad guy, and he didn't do anything that a bunch of other people are doing or did. Dawkins said it best when they neared the end when he was asked what he has to say to the NCAA, and he said, "F&*k the NCAA". I couldn't have said it better myself. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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