Philadelphia 76ers: Markelle Fultz implicated in NCAA scandal

Philadelphia 76ers guard Markelle Fultz has been named — along with many other current NBA players — as a recipient of illegal benefits before going pro.

Apparently Markelle Fultz (and Isaiah Whitehead, Bam Adebayo, former Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel, as well as countless others) received money from ASM Sports agency while they were still technically amateurs. ASM, run by former NBA agent Andy Miller, supposedly paid the players money early in their careers in an attempt to get them to sign with the agency when permissible.

The debate over whether college players should be paid is a contentious one. And while it has its place to be sure, we won’t debate the matter here. Whether or not they should be paid is indeed open for discussion, but the fact is that these players were paid, in a sense, despite it being illegal.

ASM Sports is the real villain here, make no mistake. Miller preyed on high-schoolers to attempt to secure their business illegally and at a young age. And a number of schools are implicated in aiding ASM, as an FBI investibation into the matter seems to suggest.

However, all I care about (anywhere, at any time, in any circumstances) is the Sixers. So, I must ask, as I ask in every article, how does this affect them?

Legal matters?

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It is possible that Fultz could get in some decent legal trouble. Hopefully only in the form of a fine, but I really do not know. None of the others major news sources who broke the story (first by Yahoo! Sports, later the Washington Post and TMZ Sports) have mentioned legal ramifications. That is a good sign.

A colleague of mine over at The Husky Haul theorizes that all that will happen to Fultz will be that his University of Washington wins will be invalidated by the NCAA, which, who cares, really. Never been much of a college guy myself unless I’m scouting prospects. Let’s certainly hope that’s the only concrete consequence from this situation.

It will become a story that the Sixers have to deal with, though. I certainly hope it doesn’t become a a sizable distraction for the streaking squad, but I doubt it will. Perhaps half the NBA has a player affected by the probe. I don’t see much impact or focus going forward aimed at the Sixers.

Maybe this could actually be a good thing for Fultz, believe it or not. Maybe the next time he gets interviewed, he will face questions like “Did you take $10,000 before you were allowed to?” instead of “Why does your jumpshot form resemble a little kid trying to use a Wiffleball bat to knock his frisbee out of a tree?” The former question is easier to answer, if you ask me.

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It’s probably not a good sign that having Fultz focus on a prior violation of laws is a possible improvement for his mental state over thinking about basketball. Yet, here we are.