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Since pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in March 2019, Chuck Person has been one of the few targets of the Department of Justice’s controversial college basketball corruption probe to have maintained his silence, declining numerous interview requests from reporters until now. In a brief telephone call this week with Sportico, a cautious Person spoke publicly about his former team for the first time since he was sentenced, revealing that he plans to attend Auburn’s Sweet 16 game against Michigan in Atlanta on Friday. “I feel like I had a hand in revitalizing the program,” said Person, who resides in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga.. “We brought in a great bunch of kids, with great talent and great character.”
According to Person, he attended an Auburn men’s basketball camp last summer with one of his club team’s players, during which time Pearl extended the invitation for his former assistant to come back to campus this past year for a home basketball game. Person said he ultimately decided he wasn’t quite ready for that, adding, “I still feel some kind of way.” He declined to elaborate, but noted that he has no ill will toward the school (“I still bleed orange and blue”) or Pearl, who he has spoken to “from time to time” in the seven years since he was fired over the scandal.
He went on to earn the equivalent of $46 million in today’s dollars during a 13-season NBA playing career (1986–1999), but wound up broke by the mid-2010s when he began accepting the bribes. According to his lawyers, Person’s financial troubles owed to a combination of profligate spending and giving, five-figure monthly alimony payments to an ex-wife, bad investments and the scourge of high-interest loans.
Giannis Antetokounmpo No. 188 in points now Moved ahead of Deron Williams with 13,817 points. He’s now 41 away from Chuck Person
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StatMuse: Anthony Edwards is the 2nd rookie in NBA history with 40+ points in a game with 0 made free throws. The other was Chuck Person, who was ROTY in 1987. pic.twitter.com/Zm2sMzY50z
The gym meant assistant Chuck Person and Larry Bird were around. He spent more time with them than any player on the team. And the most with Bird, who became Pacers president in 2003, who was always there for him, he said. "Larry Bird, he was a great human," Sandiford-Artest said. "He is such a great human, even outside of his career." Those years with the Pacers were bittersweet ones for Sandiford-Artest. "When it comes to my best, it was Indiana," he said. "It was the only time I was on the trajectory to go to the Hall of Fame."
Former NBA star Chuck “The Rifleman” Person avoided prison time after pleading guilty to taking bribes as an NCAA coach to steer student-athletes to a financial adviser, with the judge blaming Person’s charitable nature for his downfall. Person wept as Manhattan federal court Judge Loretta Preska sentenced Person, who’d already spent 22 months in jail, to time served. Preska chided the six-foot-eight former hoops stars for being “charitable, literally to a fault.” “I do disagree that these crimes were the result of Mr. Person’s insatiable greed,” Preska said.
Lawyers for former Auburn University assistant basketball coach Chuck Person said Tuesday the 13-year NBA veteran was broke and financially desperate when he joined a bribery conspiracy that cheated young athletes by steering them toward bribe-paying advisers and managers. They asked a judge in papers filed in Manhattan federal court to spare him from prison in the scandal that touched some of the biggest schools in college basketball.
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Lawyers for former Auburn assistant basketball coach Chuck Person said Tuesday the 13-year NBA veteran was broke and financially desperate when he joined a bribery conspiracy that cheated young athletes by steering them toward bribe-paying advisers and managers.
"Chuck recognizes that his failure to manage his money responsibly led him to make the worst decision of his entire life," the lawyers said. "He grew up poor and suddenly came into millions of dollars without a clue how to manage it. Chuck spent too freely, gave to anyone who asked, made dreadful investment decisions, and turned to high interest loans as his financial circumstances deteriorated."
A former NBA ref who went into the bespoke suit business pleaded guilty on Tuesday to paying bribes to former Auburn coach and professional player Chuck “The Rifleman” Person as part of the massive NCAA basketball bribery scandal that has resulted in prison time for several participants. Rashan Michel, 44, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to commit bribery.
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