According to new details released by Yahoo! Sports this morning, former Kentucky player Bam Adebayo once had a meal that totaled $102.68 with a sports agent.
The report says Adebayo and the agent had a meal at The Melting Pot in Charlottesville, Virginia, just after the NBA Players Association’s Top 100 Camp broke for the night
Here’s an excerpt:
At this dinner, according to expense reports and receipts that are part of evidence collected by the FBI and viewed by Yahoo Sports, were three guests of particular note: Stephen Pina, who worked as an agent for ASM Sports out of New Jersey; Edrice “Bam” Adebayo, then a 17-year-old who had just completed his junior year at Northside High School in Pinetown, North Carolina, and was in the midst of what scouts called a “standout” performance at the camp; and Eric Peartree, who was described in many media reports as Adebayo’s “mentor” or “guardian.”
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 (he was uncommitted at the time but later attended the University of Kentucky for the 2016-17 season before becoming a first-round draft pick of the Miami Heat). Adebayo never even signed with ASM.
The report details the dinner:
At the Melting Pot that night, the three, according to the documents, would order three of the limited edition “Summer Seafood Catch Entree,” adding four extra “succulent” crab claws. Someone had a cranberry juice. The bill came to $89.68, and at 9:43 p.m. Pina felt their server, Abbie, had done her job well enough to merit a tip of $18, or just over 20 percent.
Through his attorney, Bam Adebayo has denied being present at the meal.
