An article by Yahoo! Sports says North Carolina’s Roy Williams has suddenly developed “amnesia” when the topic of cheating comes up.
In 2000, Myron Piggie pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of mail and wire fraud after running an AAU team full of star high school players. Nike, a Kansas booster and multiple sports agents funded the operation. The FBI said Piggie funneled $35,500 to his players.
Williams, at that time, was coaching at Kansas.
Here’s an excerpt:
“They’ve never helped me get any player, never insinuated, never done anything,” Williams said of his relationship with Nike. Williams built a Hall of Fame career coaching at Nike schools Kansas (1988-2003) and UNC (2003-present). “We never even discuss things like that. So I know it’s foreign to me.”
In Kansas City, where 17 years ago federal prosecutors gained a guilty plea from AAU coach Myron Piggie in a scandal that involved top recruits, Nike, sports agents and a prominent University of Kansas booster, the U.S. Attorney who handled the case wonders how anyone could doubt history is repeating itself.
“No person that close to the events in 1999 could or should miss the significance of that investigation and the relevancy to today,” said Stephen L. Hill, now a partner at the Kansas City branch of the global law firm Dentons.
“Our April of 2000 indictment outlining the conspiracy laid out everything in detail and was closely covered by local and national media,” Hill told Yahoo Sports. “Mr. Piggie’s May of 2000 guilty plea was also well covered and documented the scheme. I can’t imagine any coach not following those events closely.”
Or, as Piggie put it on Tuesday when he heard of Williams’ quotes:
“Well, that’s [expletive],” Piggie told Yahoo! Sports. “I mean, come on. Come on. You know Roy knew. He was in the mix. He knew what was going on. Roy’s got amnesia.”
