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Our mothership has a big original story out in which a former sports-agent - Noah Lookofsky - alleges that he paid more than $50k to former UCLA basketball player Tyler Honeycutt and his family in hopes of signing him as a client. From the SBN report:
Lookofsky has supplied SB Nation with 56 pages of documents detailing the alleged financial relationship with Honeycutt and his mother, Lisa Stazel, including copies of receipts, deposit slips, promissory notes, travel itineraries, email exchanges and a deposited check. The documents represent car payments, rent payments and travel expenses, among other items.
Lookofsky's relationship with Honeycutt began at a Fourth of July party held at Lookofsky's home in 2008. Honeycutt was about to enter his senior year at Sylmar High School, 25 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles. Lookofsky claims the family needed help paying their rent because Stazel had recently lost her job. Lookofsky knew the deal: He had paid other potential clients (including, according to the agent, all of the athletes who ended up signing with him) before they officially declared for the NBA Draft. Mutual relationships had led Honeycutt and Stazel to Lookofsky.
"It's a common practice," Lookofsky said. "One family talks to another family, and that's the way it goes."
You can get the full details here.
All this said - according to the report in this particular to the UCLA appears to have played within the rules when informed of the allegations in 2011:
UCLA was made aware of general allegations regarding Honeycutt in the spring of 2011 when Lookofsky contacted then-head men's basketball coach Ben Howland after Honeycutt signed with Martin. Lookofsky was looking to recoup his investment in Honeycutt, and he wanted Howland's help. Honeycutt was a sophomore at the time and had declared for the NBA Draft.
Howland alerted UCLA administrators of their conversation. That same day, UCLA administrators notified the NCAA, who launched an investigation into the matter in 2011. UCLA and the NCAA made multiple attempts to contact Honeycutt and Stazel at the time to discuss the allegations. Neither Stazel nor Honeycutt would talk to investigators. Still representing athletes and wanting to keep his behind-the-scenes dealings private, Lookofsky also declined to comment to the NCAA. The investigation was closed after four months.
UCLA ultimately sent a letter of disassociation to Honeycutt and Stazel due to their lack of cooperation in the investigation. That letter withdrew any benefits Honeycutt may have received for his role as a former UCLA player. For example, he is not allowed to use any on-campus athletic facilities or attend sporting events as anything other than a member of the general public. The university also stated in the letter they would not accept any donations from Honeycutt or his family.
Lookofsky said he has no evidence that UCLA administrators knew about the transactions between him and their athlete before he notified Howland.
The question that is going through our minds - given this context regarding Honeycutt - how (and why) did Dan Guerrero allow Ben Howland to get close to Shabazz Muhammad?