Mark Konezny/USA TODAY Sports
Wow. Just wow.
A new book published this month, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen” by former escort Katina Powell, describes how she provided escorts and sex to Louisville basketball recruits from 2010 to 2014.
If true, this could potentially be devastating to the basketball program’s reputation and they could potentially receive some sort of punishment. ESPN released a report and investigation, via OTL, that describes what supposedly happened during those years. According to Powell, she worked with former Louisville graduate assistant Andre McGee on setting up times and places for the dancers and escorts to meet recruits. Although sex wasn’t a requirement, Powell said that if they girls wanted to, they would engage in sexual activities with some recruits and even their guardians.
During those years that Powell provided these services to Louisville, she apparently kept a detailed journal on what occurred, and even wrote down the names of some prominent players and recruits, such as Russ Smith.
Louisville is only a few years removed from winning their third national championship in 2013. To learn about this now and if it were to be true, means that some of the players on that team supposedly partook in these activities.
I know that some people may think, “big deal” or “this is normal for recruiting players on that level”. But the bottom line is, that it’s wrong. I know that there is a lot of money in college basketball, but people tend to forget that this is just a game and those recruits are still teenagers. Basically kids. Providing sex for a teenager who will probably only play for one year, or a maximum of four years, is just sick.
I’m hoping that all this is untrue. And even more important, that if it did happen, I hope coach Rick Pitino had no knowledge of it. He’s had his own dose of scandal over the years, but if this did happen with him knowing, I hope that he gets fired immediately and doesn’t have a chance at a prominent coaching position any time soon.
Watch the OTL interview below and tell us what you think.
