Rick Pitino, who on Monday was fired as Louisville’s head coach amid a college recruiting scandal, has filed a lawsuit against Adidas, claiming Adidas “outrageously conspired” to bribe recruits and he had no idea Adidas was involved in the recruiting violations.
The suit, filed on Tuesday, claims that doing so without his knowledge has caused “grave damage to his public and private standing and reputation, causing him extreme embarrassment, humiliation, and emotional distress,” according to ESPN, which first reported on the suit.
“[Pitino] has never authorized, tolerated, participated in, or otherwise condoned giving improper benefits to recruits or players, or to their families, especially as an inducement to have recruits join the University of Louisville men’s basketball program,” the suit states.
“The lawsuit is about more than just money; it is Coach Pitino’s vehicle for proving that he had nothing to do with Adidas’ outrageous, wrongful, and illegal conspiracy.”
Pitino’s suit seeks a jury trial along with compensatory and punitive damages.
Hours after the University of Louisville Athletic Association voted unanimously to terminate Pitino, Adidas terminated its personal services agreement with Pitino. Adidas said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Pitino’s suit “is clearly a reaction to his termination yesterday and is without merit.”
The move to fire Pitino came nearly three weeks after an Adidas executive and a company associate were accused of paying bribes to the families of athletes who agreed to attend Louisville or another Adidas-affiliated school. The Adidas defendants, Jim Gatto and Merl Code, were among ten people charged.
Pitino was placed on unpaid administrative leave on September 27. On October 2, the University of Louisville Athletic Association began the process to terminate Pitino for cause.
The allegations against Louisville involve Gatto, Code and others conspiring to make $100,000 in improper payments to the family of an unnamed player. The player is widely believed to be five-star freshman Brian Bowen, who committed to Louisville in early June.
According to Pitino’s lawsuit, the legendary coach Pitino’s attorneys said he knew Gatto and has communicated with him, “but at no time have Coach Pitino and Gatto discussed — overtly, covertly, in code, through nuance, or in any other way — the provision of improper benefits to any University of Louisville basketball player or recruit.”
“It is and was in Adidas’ interest to have the teams for schools that Adidas outfits succeed, especially because high-profile television coverage of championship events would show athletes wearing Adidas products,” the lawsuit says. “It likewise is and was in Adidas’ interest for top athletes to attend schools that Adidas outfits, because that would increase the chance of those teams’ success. And it was in Adidas’ long-term interest to build relationships with recruits early in their careers in order to influence them to sign contracts with Adidas once they became professional athletes.”
Louisville has had a longtime relationship with Adidas and Pitino. The former coach took in 98 percent of the $39 million Adidas has paid to Louisville under the terms of the school’s current deal with the company, according to the Courier-Journal. A new deal, worth $160 million over 10 years, recently was negotiated, but the school is reexamining the deal in light of the federal investigation.
The Pitino suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
Photo courtesy University of Louisville
