Friday, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Williams discussed University of Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball coach Sean Miller reportedly being overheard in an FBI wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to land a recruit.
Arizona suspended Miller while they conducted their own investigation and have since brought him back to coach.
Williams, without offering examples to back up his claim, lamented that during investigations such as Miller’s that black assistant coaches “end up falling on the sword” and looking like the “crooks.”
“It continues to bother me that we always have these assistant African-American coaches that always have to end up falling on the sword. They’re always the ones who are crooks. They’re the ones who are bad. Aesthetically, that’s a bad look for me and I don’t like that because all the assistant coaches I know, they know what’s going on,” Williams said on “First Take.”
He continued, “And the head coaches, I’m not saying it pertains to this particular matter because I’m sure there are instances where head coaches do not know what assistant coaches are doing. But every head coach I’ve ever met in my life — I work with one every single day. Seth Greenberg knows everything about everything that goes on that we do. He asks every question all the time. Their attention to detail is off the charts. It just blows my mind that these big issues that arise all of a sudden, ‘I don’t know anything about it.’ And it happens time after time and it’s plausible deniability and everything moves on as far as business as usual.”
“First Take” co-host Stephen A. Smith backed Williams’ comments “1,000 percent,” adding that black assistant coaches feel they have “no choice” but to do the “dirty work” in coaching because of their aspirations to be a head coach.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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