Ex-basketball star Dennis Smith Jr. denies getting paid by ‘anyone at NC State’
Former N.C. State basketball star Dennis Smith Jr. denied he received a $40,000 payment from an Adidas consultant during the recruiting process and said neither he nor his family had ever received “cash from anyone at N.C. State,” according to records released Tuesday to The News & Observer.
N.C. State released the information from Smith’s April 30 interview as a part of public records requests by The N&O.
The school also released an email from the NCAA which noted the deadline for N.C. State’s response to the Notice of Allegations (NOA) has been delayed until after Nov. 20. When N.C. State had received the NOA in July, it originally had an Oct. 7 deadline.
The memorandum, prepared by N.C. State compliance director Carrie Doyle, was included in the NCAA’s NOA which outlines four potential violations connected to Smith and his tenure at the school from January 2016 to March 2017.
The school had previously released a list of documents included in the NCAA case but not the contents of Doyle’s memorandum.
The most serious violations in the NCAA case are centered on an alleged $40,000 payment from T.J. Gassnola, a former Adidas consultant, to Smith’s family in the fall of 2015 while Smith was being recruited.
Gassnola’s testimony from former Adidas executive Jim Gatto’s wire fraud trial last October in a federal court in New York, and court documents with bank withdrawals matching the amount of the alleged payment, are included in the NCAA’s evidence.
Doyle had also testified during Gatto’s trial. Doyle, along with assistant compliance director Steve Shults and former senior associate athletic director Chris Boyer, interviewed Smith on April 30 after he had been at the school’s on-campus practice facility for a workout.
According to the memo, Smith said he did not know who Gassnola was and said he was not aware of the allegation that Gassnola had provided a $40,000 payment to former assistant coach Orlando Early, until he was asked about it after an NBA game against the Los Angeles Lakers during his rookie season with the Dallas Mavericks.
Smith said he did not take any money from Gassnola and neither did his father, Dennis Sr. If he had, “he would not have been driving his grandmother’s car” while he was at N.C. State, he said according to the memo.
Dennis Smith Jr. would resell Adidas gear
Smith was the ACC freshman of the year in 2016-17 and the Wolfpack’s top player during his lone season with the program. The team entered the season with high expectations but sputtered to a 15-17 record and coach Mark Gottfried was fired with four games left in the season.
Smith left for the NBA draft and was taken No. 9 overall by the Mavericks. He was traded to the New York Knicks last season.
Smith also said in the memo that he “knew how to help himself financially” and that he would resell the “exclusive shoes and gear” he received from Adidas, the shoe and apparel company that has a multimillion contract with N.C. State and sponsored his AAU team.
Smith said that, he would “sell Yeezy’s for like $300,” a reference to the company’s popular Kanye West model.
When asked if had received envelopes containing cash from Gottfried or Early, Smith said “he nor his family ever received any cash from anyone at N.C. State.”
Smith also denied ever receiving money from Shawn Farmer, who was his former trainer and who Gassnola testified was involved in the alleged $40,000 payment. Smith added that he had a falling out with Farmer and he does not talk with Farmer anymore.
During the interview, Doyle asked Smith why he chose N.C. State. Smith said his grandmother, Gloria Smith, is a longtime N.C. State fan and she had wanted him to play for the Wolfpack.
The five-star prospect out of Fayetteville said his final two schools were N.C. State and Duke and that Duke had already signed a point guard from the same recruiting class.
Smith also denied that he had ever wavered in his commitment to N.C. State, which was what Gassnola had testified was the reason for the alleged payment.
Smith, who has not been interviewed by the NCAA, said he would consider talking to the NCAA and that he wanted to help N.C. State.
Mark Gottfried’s cellphone records withheld
N.C. State had also planned to release Gottfried’s cellphone records, which are also an exhibit in the NCAA’s case and had been requested by the N&O. But Tuesday afternoon Gottfried’s attorney, Elliot Abrams, had won a temporary restraining order preventing it. Abrams declined to comment Tuesday evening.
Abrams contended in a court filing that releasing the records would be an invasion of Gottfried’s privacy, since he used an NCSU-issued cellphone for public and private business.
“Gottfried is entitled to an injunction restraining N.C. State from producing his private telephone records to the public without first affording him the opportunity to redact information that is totally unrelated to his work as head men’s basketball coach,” Abrams said in his court filing.
A hearing in Wake County Superior Court to hear arguments regarding the release of the Gottfried’s cell phone records is set for Monday.
— Dave Kane contributed to this report
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 8:34 PM with the headline "Ex-basketball star Dennis Smith Jr. denies getting paid by ‘anyone at NC State’."
