Rick Pitino Reacts to Claims by Former Adidas Consultant Merl Code

Iona coach Rick Pitino flatly denies the recent claims made by Merl Code, a former Adidas consultant who faces nine months in federal prison for his role in the pay-for-play scandal that cost the former Louisville coach his job.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde and Yahoo's Dan Wetzel on the College Football Enquirer podcast, Code claimed that federal investigators “wanted [former Arizona coach] Sean Miller. They wanted [LSU coach] Will Wade. They wanted Rick Pitino.” But instead, Code is among the low-profile basketball-adjacent figures heading to prison after the Southern District of New York's probe into corruption in the sport. 

Of Pitino specifically, Code said he was told the then Louisville coach wanted help from Adidas to help the Cardinals land former blue-chip recruit Brian Bowen II. 

Pitino has consistently denied knowledge of a $100,000 payment made to Bowen to lead him to Louisville, and on Twitter Friday, he denied knowing who Code is.

T.J. Gassnola, who served as a government witness in the trial, testified that he never informed Pitino about the payment made to the Bowen family to lure the star player to Louisville, stating that the only four that knew about the payments were “Myself, Merl Code, Christian Dawkins and Jim Gatto.”

Brian Bowen Sr., the player's father, testified that while he received payment from Adidas, along with a $1,300 payment from former Louisville assistant Kenny Johnson to help with rent, he never told Bowen II or his son's mother about the payments.

Dawkins, who was found guilty on two of six counts alongside Code, said that “Rick has no clue what's going on at his school,” while, “Most of the bigger guys, they know.”

In his forthcoming book, Black Market: An Insider’s Journey Into the High-Stakes World of College Basketball, Code maintains that Pitino was at least aware of the payments to the Bowen family and that they couldn't have been made without sign-off from Adidas.

“The gist of the prosecution was that, as it related to me, my actions made Brian Bowen ineligible, thus defrauding the University of Louisville,” Code writes. “As a consultant with Adidas, I did not act on my own, nor could I have done so. I simply ran the proposition by my bosses, who did the same after consulting with Rick Pitino, and the answer that came back from up high was, ‘Rick wants our help. Get it done.’”

When Code and Dawkins refused to cooperate with FBI so far as to “wear wires and have our phone calls recorded” to ensnare major coaches like Pitino, Kansas's Bill Self and others, “I think the focus [of the investigation] then shrunk,” Code said.

Pitino's role in the FBI's investigation was one scandal too many for Louisville, which fired the Hall of Fame coach ahead of the 2017 season. 

Two years before, Louisville self-imposed a postseason ban for the 2015–16 season as the NCAA investigated allegations made by Katina Powell, who alleged that she and other women were hired as escorts by former Cardinals assistant Andre McGee to strip, dance and have sex with basketball recruits. Pitino denied all knowledge of the scandal, but was hit with a “failure to monitor” charge by the NCAA and suspended for five games to begin ACC play in 2017–18. Louisville was also forced to vacate wins, including the 2013 national championship.  

Pitino went overseas to coach Greek club Panathinaikos, along with Greece's senior national men's basketball team. In 2020, he returned to college hoops, taking over at Iona, the program in which he hopes to finish his career. 

“I told the team that I'm glad I got 800 here, but I said I want to get another 200 here. ... This is a great job, we can make this into something really, really special,” Pitino said earlier this month, after winning his 800th career game with the Gaels, amid reported discussions for a “lifetime” contract extension with the program.

“I'm really happy, I hope I can get 1,000 here. God willing, I hope I can live long enough to see that.”