Alleged Adebayo dinner cited as evidence of agents’ pervasive influence in college basketball

A dinner allegedly involving former Kentucky player Edrice “Bam” Adebayo in 2015 is the subject of a new story from Yahoo Sports about professional agents’ influence in the college game.

Adebayo, who denies being part of such a meeting, is alleged to have sat down with Stephen Pina an agent of ASM Sports and his former family associate Eric Peartree at The Melting Pot restaurant in Charlottesville, Va., following the NBA Players Association’s Top 100 Camp, according to receipts and expense documents that are part of a huge store of evidence collected in the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball.

Adebayo was an uncommitted college recruit at the time, according to the report, and did not end up signing with ASM once his Kentucky career finished last year. He also had apparently disassociated himself from Peartree sometime during his recruitment process, according to reports. Adebayo’s name was one of three former Kentucky players mentioned in another Yahoo Sports report last month.

Yahoo’s Pat Forde, Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel wrote: “The significance of this meeting is how seemingly insignificant it was. It was dinner; a good dinner, but not some glitzy wining and dining. There is no evidence of bags of cash or new cars or anything you might see in a movie. There is no suggestion Pina was steering Adebayo to any school ...”

Read the full story at YahooSports.com.

This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Alleged Adebayo dinner cited as evidence of agents’ pervasive influence in college basketball."