Loan to KU draft pick Josh Jackson's mom reportedly detailed in documents seized by FBI
Reports by Yahoo Sports link Apples Jones, the mother of former Kansas basketball player and 2017 NBA first-round draft pick Josh Jackson, to loans provided by agent Andy Miller's ASM Sports Agency and also include a claim that Jones received money from Adidas.
The first story, released Friday morning by Pete Thamel and Pat Forde, cited documentation from discovery of the federal investigation into college basketball and related criminal lawsuits. In addition, the story said from the information gathered that there are “potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools.”
Jones, according to Yahoo, received $2,700, which included a Feb. 1, 2016 advance of $1,700. That date is before Jackson committed to KU on April 11, 2016.
KU coach Bill Self was reached by The Star on Friday morning and reserved comment until he said he could study the report. He issued a statement Friday night.
“After reading the article this morning, like most of us involved in college athletics, we’re hearing and learning about it for the first time,” Self said. “I, along with our administration, am evaluating the credibility of the information related to Kansas.
“I do know for sure that we did not use Miller’s agency for recruiting purposes or any purpose.”
"I have never met Andy Miller, and while we had a relationship with Christian, we never took anything from him," she said.
Yahoo released another story Friday night that referenced Jones, saying that FBI documents showed that Dawkins — a 24-year-old associate for ASM — emailed his bosses on Aug. 20, 2016 while referencing a conversation he had with Jackson's mother. That email was sent more than two months after Jackson first arrived at KU's campus.
“His situation is going to get done at the very end," Dawkins wrote of Jackson's agent status, according to Yahoo. "UA is giving (Jones) 10k a month and she’s also getting paid by adidas now — so she’s plenty taken care of. She actually works all of under armours events now and talks to the parents as a “advisor”. I do think she’s honest when she says she has only spoken with (agent) Bj Armstrong at this point. After further dialog I don’t think (NBA agent Bill) Duffy will be in there — but you can’t count him out ever. We will have to discuss how we will handle the moms boyfriend moving forward.”
Yahoo said that a KU official referred to Self's statement from Friday when asked about the Dawkins email. Self had no comment about the second Yahoo story when reached by the Star on Friday night.
Jones runs the 1 Nation Elite AAU program, which is sponsored by Under Armour. Yahoo said it was "unclear why she also allegedly got paid by Adidas." Yahoo also said one of Dawkins' expense reports from two months earlier listed a hotel charge of $367.01 with the description, “Room for Josh Jackson stepdad.”
Former KU guard Elijah Johnson also appeared in Yahoo's documents Friday. He was two years past his playing days at KU when he showed up as receiving a $15,020 loan from ASM Sports on a 2015 balance sheet, according to Yahoo. Johnson originally signed with agent Stephen Pina of ASM Sports out of college.
The information obtained by Yahoo also indicates that former Wichita State guard Fred VanVleet received at least $1,000 in loans.
NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement Friday morning.
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America,” Emmert said.
Emmert later said that he and the newly formed Commission on College Basketball — chaired by Condoleezza Rice — were committed to “making transformational changes to the game.”
"Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports," Emmert said. "They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.”
Other players cited in the Yahoo report include former Washington player and No. 1 draft pick Markelle Fultz, former Kentucky player Bam Adebayo, Michigan State's Miles Bridges and Duke's Wendell Carter.
This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 8:56 AM with the headline "Loan to KU draft pick Josh Jackson's mom reportedly detailed in documents seized by FBI."