NBPA Exec Dir Michele Roberts said that the union is "reviewing the federal filing that levels corruption charges at multiple major college basketball coaches and a high-level executive at Adidas to determine if there are relationships between those named in the complaint and NBA players," according to Chris Mannix of THE VERTICAL. Roberts on Tuesday asked NBPA General Counsel Gary Kohlman to "direct his staff to determine if any of the named defendants have relationships with NBA players and what relationships the defendants have with agents or other financial advisers who are known to be dealing with NBA players." Roberts: “We are going to be rigorous in making sure that anybody who is engaged in this misconduct is out, at least in terms of being certified by this (players association) to continue to work with our players." Mannix noted while the NBPA does "not certify financial advisers, Roberts made it clear that any agent involved in misconduct would be held accountable." Roberts: “This is the kind of criminal prosecution that generally results in people, in my words, flipping. There are too many close associations between some of the named defendants and people that I know are actively engaged with (NBA) players to think that it won’t have any impact. It will. But it’s almost good news. If people are engaged in this kind of conduct and potentially harming our players, thank you U.S. Attorney’s office, I’ll get right on it and get rid of them. This is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/27).
