AAU Tightens Access To Keep Out Middlemen

August 1, 2012 / Winning Hoops
USA Today

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2012/07/credentials-tightened-to-keep-middlemen-from-aau-event/1#.UBj1bWHY-So

Officials who run the Nike Peach Jam event have implemented strict standards for credentialing media members, making it more difficult for middlemen and other third-party individuals to gain access to top prospects here by virtue of a media pass.

Officials did not disclose how many individuals were denied a media pass. But they have tried to take control of an issue that has become more problematic in recent years: Some individuals who do not work for reputable media organizations have increasingly used a media pass to gain access to and influence with some of the nation’s top high school basketball prospects.

“We want to ensure that the media has access to these events, to the prospects, our coaches, said LuAnn Humphrey, the director of enforcement for the NCAA basketball focus group. “But there is, we would acknowledge, a concern about some individuals who may be trying to manipulate that process in a wrong way.

“Yes, we are aware of the issue. We welcome any cooperation that an event operation has in that regard. But ultimately it is up to those event operators to determine who they allow into their event and who they do not.”

The National Basketball Players’ Association Top 100 Camp, held each June in Charlottesville, Va., is another camp that has attempted to clamp down on the issue.

In recent years, a North Carolina-based man named Joe Davis gained access to the Top 100 Camp with a media pass, calling himself a recruiting analyst. But Davis also propositioned coaches for money in return for increased access to prospects who have relationships with Davis, according to The Washington Post. Davis has denied any wrongdoing.

And in 2009, William Wesley, one of the most influential power brokers in basketball, gained entry to the Top 100 camp and dined with prospects. Camp officials initially said that Wesley was a blood relative of NBA players union executive director Billy Hunter.

Wesley did in fact have a longstanding relationship with one of the prospects at the camp, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, though some of the other prospects thought Wesley was a representative of Nike.

AAU Tightens Access To Keep Out Middlemen

USA Today

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2012/07/credentials-tightened-to-keep-middlemen-from-aau-event/1#.UBj1bWHY-So

Officials who run the Nike Peach Jam event have implemented strict standards for credentialing media members, making it more difficult for middlemen and other third-party individuals to gain access to top prospects here by virtue of a media pass.

Officials did not disclose how many individuals were denied a media pass. But they have tried to take control of an issue that has become more problematic in recent years: Some individuals who do not work for reputable media organizations have increasingly used a media pass to gain access to and influence with some of the nation’s top high school basketball prospects.

“We want to ensure that the media has access to these events, to the prospects, our coaches, said LuAnn Humphrey, the director of enforcement for the NCAA basketball focus group. “But there is, we would acknowledge, a concern about some individuals who may be trying to manipulate that process in a wrong way.

“Yes, we are aware of the issue. We welcome any cooperation that an event operation has in that regard. But ultimately it is up to those event operators to determine who they allow into their event and who they do not.”

The National Basketball Players’ Association Top 100 Camp, held each June in Charlottesville, Va., is another camp that has attempted to clamp down on the issue.

In recent years, a North Carolina-based man named Joe Davis gained access to the Top 100 Camp with a media pass, calling himself a recruiting analyst. But Davis also propositioned coaches for money in return for increased access to prospects who have relationships with Davis, according to The Washington Post . Davis has denied any wrongdoing.

And in 2009, William Wesley, one of the most influential power brokers in basketball, gained entry to the Top 100 camp and dined with prospects. Camp officials initially said that Wesley was a blood relative of NBA players union executive director Billy Hunter.

Wesley did in fact have a longstanding relationship with one of the prospects at the camp, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, though some of the other prospects thought Wesley was a representative of Nike.