Telling
Ex-Arizona State player writes about point shaving
Posted: Wednesday November 04, 1998 09:39 PM
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Stevin Smith says he was "well taken care of" while at Arizona State J.D. Cuban/Allsport |
MESA, Arizona (AP) -- A former Arizona State basketball star who pleaded guilty last year to sports bribery conspiracy in games against Washington and other schools is telling his story in a national sports magazine.
Stevin "Hedake" Smith told Sports Illustrated that he was "well taken care of" during his stint with the Sun Devils.
The first-person story as told to reporter Don Yaeger appears in the November 9 issue, available on newsstands starting Wednesday. In the story, Smith, the Sun Devils' No. 2 all-time leading scorer, also tells how he got into the habit of gambling.
Though the federal probe of the 1994 scandal is over and resulted in a number of guilty pleas and sentences, Smith's story suggesting gifts from boosters could lead to an NCAA investigation.
Yaeger told The Tribune, a newspaper serving suburban Phoenix, that Smith met with an Arizona State official several weeks ago to discuss possible rules violations. Yaeger also said Sports Illustrated interviewed other sources to verify Smith's claims.
Wally Renfro, NCAA director of public relations, said he hadn't seen anything pertaining to the report but that anytime NCAA officials receive information of possible wrongdoing, they try to "verify its validity and see if there's reason to go forward with an investigation."
The Tribune said Smith, Arizona State athletics director Kevin White and former coach Bill Frieder, who recruited and coached Smith and ultimately resigned over the scandal, couldn't be reached for comment.
Besty Mosher, the athletic department's senior associate athletics director, told The Tribune that "we've heard this stuff over and over; we're not making any comments."
In his story, Smith says that "during my time at Arizona State, I had been well taken care of. I always had a nice car while I was in college -- a Cherokee, two Mustang GTs, a Rodeo, a Sierra K1500. I had jewelry, clothes and a nice apartment my senior year. I always had cash in my pocket.
"But I had those things because I was well liked by certain Arizona State boosters, not because I was a gambler," he added.
Smith did not mention names or elaborate on the alleged gifts.
Bill Frieder, Arizona State's basketball coach at the time,
issued a statement Wednesday emphasizing that he knew nothing of
any aid boosters may have given Smith.
"I cannot tell you why Hedake would have made this statement
about automobiles and boosters," Freider said. "When I came to
ASU, I was extremely concerned about the problems ASU had with
boosters during the '80s. It was a huge problem that led to several
sports being put on probation."
Frieder said he and then-athletic director Charles Harris
"worked very hard to ensure that NCAA rules were not violated."
"The reality is that there is no program that has better
compliance than ASU," Frieder said.
Frieder disputed Smith's contention that he had never met with
the player one-on-one to discuss the allegations. On Tuesday,
Frieder sent reporters a copy of a statement Smith signed, dated
March 10, 1994, in which the player denied ever being involved in
any gambling on Arizona State games or giving less than his best as
a player for the Sun Devils.
"I want to make it clear that I feel badly for Hedake, and
especially his mother," Frieder said. "I hope this article will
act as a deterrent to other players."
Smith said his gambling started when he was challenged by a fellow student to put up money to back up his comments on a pending pro football contest.
He did, and he lost $100. He bet on other pro football games and continued to lose, he said, and "within a matter of weeks, I was betting anything I could."
As for his point shaving, Smith said he cheated while playing on defense. In one such game in which he scored a career-high 39 points against Oregon State, he said he just "stepped back a half step" from the player he was guarding "and he had the room he needed." The Sun Devils won but only by six, meaning the Beavers covered the spread.
Smith admitted having agreed to fix four games for $20,000 a game, in part to erase a reported $10,000 gambling debt.
The other games were with Oregon, Southern California and Washington.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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