Rick Pitino was formally fired by Louisville as the men’s basketball team’s head coach today (Oct. 16). Perhaps more interesting are texts that led to his ouster, which included a request for adidas Yeezys.
Af for getting canned, TMZ reports:
Rick Pitino has officially been FIRED by UL … less than 3 weeks after he was put on unpaid administrative leave over his suspected involvement in the NCAA bribery scandal.
The University of Louisville Athletic Association today voted to fire Pitino — a Hall of Famer who coached the school’s basketball teams since 2001 — for “just cause.”
As we previously reported, UL prez Greg Postel fired off a letter to Pitino last month … saying the school believed evidence from the FBI investigation incriminated the coach.
This is where the salacious, to say the least, allegations come in. Investigators have texts that Pitino sent an adidas rep with special requests.
One of those texts include horrid misspellings of the shoe that helped adidas hop over the Jumpman. Pitino was connected to Jim Gatto, the adidas exec arrested by the Feds for his alleged role in bribing blue-chip basketball players to sign with certain college basketball powerhouses.
It seems that Gatto was the plug for Pitino’s Yeezys.
Reports Business Insider:
ESPN reported on Monday that Pitino said in an affidavit that he “had no part — active, passive, or through willful ignorance — in the conspiracy described in the complaint.”
Documents released to reporters by Pitino’s attorney, however, show that the coach and Gatto were in touch. Pitino says they never discussed improperly paying a player to come to Louisville, which would violate NCAA rules.
In the documents, obtained by Spectrum Sports reporter Lyndsey Gough, Gatto and Pitino apparently discuss the former Louisville player Terry Rozier via text message. Pitino also asks whether Gatto can get him a pair of sneakers from Kanye West’s sneaker brand Yeezy, which both men misspell.
“Thx Jim -excited about this team -can u give me those white with black stripes Yeesys,” Pitino texted Gatto, the documents show.
“Working on that color of Yezzy’s,” Gatto responded. “There is a newer all white pair as well that might be easier for me to get.”
When using spell check goes wrong?
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Photo: Getty
