Feb 23, 2018: ESPN/Schlabach report “a source familiar with FBI wiretaps” claims they have Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins talking 100k payment to Ayton to secure Ayton to Arizona.

Schlabach makes the evening rounds and promotes his unproven hearsay as fact.

Feb 24, 2018: ESPN Game day with @Bilas & @DickieV all spend the day trashing the shit out of Miller, calling for his head, forcing Miller to voluntarily sit out of the evening’s game, despite no evidence.

Again, no actual proof of this wiretap has been made public.

Feb 25, 2018: Morning Media is continuing to trash Miller. By afternoon the first holes in the Schlabach report emerge, namely that Schlabach admits in a tweet he’s never corroborated existence of wiretap, evidence is federally sealed (link 1 a lawyer was the source)

By evening the timeline has its first change, due largely to the reporting of @JasonScheer, @AZAuthority & @247Sports ...
ESPN hides its update and never speaks of it in the media. The original story were updated without identifiers, only on correction page is what was done shown

This was done because original report said wiretap had Miller/Dawkins talking payment to secure Ayton to Arizona. But wiretaps weren’t in place until 7 months after Ayton had signed Arizona LOI.

So, ESPN “corrects” timeline to prior to commitment, “Spring 2016”

Feb 27: Except the FBI didn’t have wiretaps up during that window, so zero way wiretaps could be catching anything.

So, ESPN changes to just “2016” which still doesn’t correspond to wiretaps, then briefly to “2017” which does, but is too vague, then changes back to original:

Again, this is a clusterfuck because by the time the wiretaps are up to catch anything, Ayton is on Arizona’s campus. Further, Dawkins ran with Adidas reps, & Arizona was Nike, Better explained by @McCannSportsLaw here:

March 1st, 2018: Miller and Arizona have issued statements, directly refuting the claims made in the article. ESPN responds by editorializing it’s corrections section for the 4th time:

More to come later... a lot more.

During the window of Feb 23 - March 1, amidst contact timeline corrections, @espn also engaged in other forms of misinformation.

This shows ESPN reporting and in graphic imagery trying to link its “Schlabach report to previous released transcripts of FBI wiretaps:

Then, they, having been scooped by @YahooSports Feb 22nd, @espn attempts to link their own Ayton report with the Yahoo scoop.

Both are obvious errors and falsities, and each could easily be construed trying to claim credibility via other, more proven, corroborated reports:

The vast collection of erroneous reporting in broadcast, in print, in online, then talking loudly about erroneous reports but only slyly “correcting” them, then attempting to link to “FBI Reports” & “Yahoo Reports”, this clearly shows @espn involved in irresponsible coverage.

During this Feb 24 - March 1 window, the FBI was on campus. This after they already were on campus and investigating Miller in the weeks leading up to their announcement of indictments.

Outside Investigative Counsel confirmed Ayton was cleared, with the following:

Paul Kelly, states and confirms Ayton and Alkins were questioned and investigated and was cleared by the FBI and NCAA, Ayton by the NCAA a second time, and by this counsel.

For months @espn stood by its erroneous report despite refutings by @McCannSportsLaw, then this today:

Buried in their coverage of the trial, @TucsonStar hired reporter @AdamZagoria, wrote the following as quoted by Christian Dawkins... these are used within this @JasonScheer & @AZAuthority article detailing all the facts of this thread.

@JasonScheer reported this from the start.

@espn and @Mark_Schlabach continue to duck any sort of story regarding Dawkins refuting their story. Asked multiple times since Wednesday, ESPN and Schlabach have offered this to @JasonScheer and @AZAuthority, the first to challenge the initial report:

@AZAuthority is reporting facts now in evidence, but widely known to subscribers & to those with common sense, that Book Richardson never paid a single cent to any player, prospect, family, handler. This is backed by actual proof, significant as it undercuts all of Books claims.

How do we logic this is true?

The FBI and NCAA cleared every player and prospect linked by Book/Dawkins to Arizona.

Further, the Feds declined to prosecute Book for conspiracy to commit fraud, only pleading him out on Bribery.

Are @ESPN, @YahooSports, @AdamZagoria, @GaryParrishCBS, & @DanaONeilWriter going to report these facts nationally? They are guilty of hyper-sensationalism based on Book’s wiretaps. Is @TucsonStar going to bury this story in some other bullshit?

How about you report facts & news.

Here’s courtroom testimony/evidence and discussion of how Book not sought to profit off these transaction, never paying anyone but himself:

And here is where, after the guilty plea and sentence was concluded, free to speak truth, whatever it is, even if it burns down Miller and Arizona, a contrite Book says Miller didn’t know anything about anything Book was saying and doing and about players allegedly being payed:

Today, March 18, 2020, the director of HBO’s The Scheme confirms, as previously reported and linked here, that Dawkins says the @ESPN, @Mark_Schlabach report of a wiretap Phonecalls of Miller/Dawkins conversation offering to pay Ayton $100k Feb.23, 2018 never happened!