It was supposed to be the thickness of the national treasure that is March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament. But because of the new coronavirus, the tournament was canceled. The NBA is also suspended indefinitely.
Tonight, however, an aspect of basketball that is not in the air: the undeniable impact of African players. Success stories abound. However, these are unfortunately exceptions. Vast lists of young players – spotted for the first time on African playgrounds, sometimes simply for their size – are brought to the United States, to be victimized. In a yearlong investigation, we followed Africa to the United States. basketball court. We found him littered with corrupt high schools and dark figures who cheat families, violate immigration rules and even commit federal crimes.
It’s the big wave of basketball; and it shows no signs of receding. Teams of all levels – high school, college, pro; men and women – filled with African players. Most were recruited to come into adolescence. Take 7’6 “Tacko Fall from Senegal, who, as a child, did not know much about basketball or the country he was heading to.
Tacko Fall: I thought the United States was like New York. Like, everywhere was like New York. Large buildings and movie stars everywhere. So I was a little excited – just to see. Because I – I never left my country.
Tacko is an NBA rookie. And with an irresistible personality to match its catchy name, a cult factor. He switches between the Boston Celtics and the Celtics minor league team in Portland, Maine, winning fans everywhere he goes. But his journey from Senegal eight years ago was not as easy.
Tacko Fall: I was young. I was 16 years old. I left my mother and my little brother. And leaving them just when I got here was really, really difficult.
Jon Wertheim: Did the men who organized your coming here act well for you?
Tacko Fall: I will say that uh, they tried.
His first stop was Texas, where recruiters promised him a scholarship. To bring him into the country, Tacko received an I-20 / F-1 visa, a federal authorization to study in a specific school. But when Tacko arrived, the recruiters transferred him to another charter school, canceling his visa.
Tacko Fall: For some reason, there was a problem with the school I had to go to. So if you don’t go to a school you were supposed to go to, that school can cancel your I-20. And then once they’ve canceled I-20, then you’re not here legally.
Jon Wertheim: So you … you’re playing for a charter school on a canceled visa. You are basically here …
Tacko Fall: Yes, we were–
Jon Wertheim: … officially.
Tacko Fall: Yeah. We didn’t know.
Jon Wertheim: I – I can’t imagine the stress of – you could be kicked out. You can be sent home.
Tacko Fall: Absolutely.
We have found recruiters across the country, who often act as legal guardians of players, playing quickly and freely with immigration rules. And we were surprised to learn from immigration and customs, or ice cream, that the onus is on children to set their visa status.
Jon Wertheim: You … you go to a Tennessee school. And then you go to another in Georgia. “Sorry, I can’t help you.” And then you go to another school in Orlando. And they are able to solve this problem.
Tacko Fall: They are able to solve it.
The Orlando school helped Tacko correct his I-20 visa, and he continued to play at the University of Central Florida before moving to the NBA. But he knows other African recruits who have gone through difficult times.
Tacko Fall: There have been many times where I feel like some people have taken advantage of where they brought them here, so that’s it. Then they are just left for themselves. And if things don’t work, then it’s – they – they’re pretty much screwed up.
Take the case of Blessing Ejiofor from Nigeria. At the age of 15, standing 6’5 “, she was recruited by a scout to come to the United States. She was armed with an I-20 visa and promised a full scholarship to the Evelyn Mack Academy in North Carolina.
Jon Wertheim: What did you hear about the Evelyn Mack Academy?
Blessing Ejiofor: Nothing. I just got I-20 and they said, “This is where you’re going. And when you get to the airport, the coach will be there to pick you up.”
Jon Wertheim: And are you going online and seeing this school in North Carolina?
Blessing Ejiofor: Yes, I did. I was a little curious about the team and I love people. So … yes, I did. I went online.
Jon Wertheim: It looked like a good place to go to school.
Blessing Ejiofor: Yes.
The ornate building that Blessing saw online? It turns out that it was an image borrowed from the iconic domed library of MIT. And that deceptive website was the least of the lies, as Blessing discovered as soon as his flight landed.
Jon Wertheim: Do you remember what happened when you got to JFK?
Blessing Ejiofor: Um, yeah. I saw the coach. He– he had East Side High School, the coach who picked me up from the airport–
Jon Wertheim: East Side High School?
Ejiofor Blessing: Yeah, East Side High School. I am, “Okay, I’m supposed to go to the Evelyn Mack Academy. Why is this East Side High School?”
Jon Wertheim: So you flew over hoping to go to school in North Carolina. You get off the plane at JFK and they say, “No, no, no, you’re going to Patterson, New Jersey instead.” How was it?
Blessing Ejiofor: I was young. I was delighted to be here. (LAUGHTER) I was like, “Okay.”
Jon Wertheim: “- Wherever you want me to go, I will go”?
Blessing Ejiofor: (SIGH) I mean, I couldn’t have argued with them.
That is true. A 15-year-old girl crossed an ocean to be stopped at JFK by a trainer she had never met and told her that she would not go to North Carolina but rather to Patterson, New Jersey.
Coaches stacked their basketball teams there with talented African players like Blessing. And we have found other schools nationwide to negotiate African basketball players.
Scott Rosner: It’s really the Wild West in almost every sense of the phrase.
Scott Rosner, professor of sports management at Columbia University, told us about a whole culture of intermediaries taking advantage of unsuspecting young African athletes.
Jon Wertheim: W– what would motivate a recruiter or a coach – you say intermediary – to do that to children?
Scott Rosner: At the end of the day, it all depends on the money that goes into the system. And they can monetize their relationships and their place in the world of basketball in general.
On a case-by-case basis, the intermediaries are looking for a drop in future revenues, up to 40% in a contract we have heard of. Keep in mind the average NBA salary, it is now almost $ 8 million.
Scott Rosner: This is pure unbridled greed. In the end, in many cases, it is the youth who is exploited. And it is definitely out of their job. And their competence.
Jon Wertheim: How harmful is it to the children involved?
Scott Rosner: Oh, it’s terrible for the kids involved. The child – the saddest stories are the ones that don’t.
Jon Wertheim: The vast majority.
Scott Rosner: —the vast majority who can’t really get close to the NBA. And they were sold on the dream of being able to get there.
We went to North Carolina to investigate the Evelyn Mack Academy, the school that sponsored Blessing Ejiofor’s I-20 visa.
Former policewoman, Evelyn Mack installed her academy of the same name in a lowered building. Not at MIT. Only 50 children went to her school, but she issued visas for more than 75 international students, raising suspicions from US homeland security investigators.
Kenny Smith: Evelyn Mack had a school. And she requested and received permission from the Department of Homeland Security to admit foreign students.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenny Smith filed a lawsuit against Mack in 2018 for conspiracy to house foreigners. She pleaded guilty; his school closed during the night; and she is currently serving 18 months in a federal prison.
Jon Wertheim: So she filled out documents so that African students could come to this school?
Kenny Smith: Yes, Africa and other countries.
Jon Wertheim: Who asked him to do this?
Kenny Smith: There were basketball coaches. There were basketball recruiters. And they went to Evelyn Mack to use the authorization she had received.
Jon Wertheim: So these are middlemen who say, “I … I have to send this player to the United States, how am I going to do it?” And Evelyn Mack was the answer?
Kenny Smith: And for $ 1,000, she agreed to drop I-20s and help get these students into the United States.
In all, Mack took $ 75,000 to issue visas, then looked away when the coaches and intermediaries directed most of the students to other schools across the country.
Jon Wertheim: Do you have any idea how many other people have been involved in this?
Kenny Smith: No.
Federal judge sentencing Mack was skeptical that the 69-year-old was at the top of a basketball recruiting program. Like us, he wondered why the government did not go after the people who bought her visas, saying, “She had a co-conspirator for each of these crimes, all 75 of them. .. I don’t like the fact that these coaches are not … brought. ”
A coach has repeatedly mentioned Aris Hines in this case.
We found several players who said that Hines recruited them to the Evelyn Mack Academy and became their legal guardian to leave them in an overcrowded house while he lived for hours on end.
One of these athletes, Souley Doumbia, from Côte d’Ivoire, spoke to us about the foreigner via video chat.
Jon Wertheim: How did you get to the United States? Who brought you here?
Souley Doumbia: Hmm, he’s a guy named Aris Hines. He lives in North Carolina. He was the one who helped me.
Standing 6’11 “, Souley came to the United States at 16, hopeful.
Jon Wertheim: What did you hear about the Evelyn Mack Academy?
Souley Doumbia: I was told it was going to be a good school. I was going to receive an education. I was going to train well in basketball and everything.
But Souley says that upon his arrival, education was lower and classes irregular; he says the school started asking him to pay the school fees and when he complained he was threatened with having his passport taken away. He says Hines didn’t help.
Souley Doumbia: It really caused me, for example, to put myself in a bad situation. So I didn’t want to do anything with him anymore.
Background research on Aris Hines revealed that in several states, he was involved in questionable academies and housing in poor conditions, a large number of young athletes, foreign and American.
We also spoke to police sources in North Carolina. They say Hines took more than $ 27,000 from eight families of athletes, promising scholarships and basketball that he never delivered. Some families say he also lied to them about his credentials and where their children went to school. These allegations led to eight charges brought against a state court against Hines.
A new district prosecutor was elected and the charges were dropped.
Hines moved to Texas.
Today, he promises to be an elite basketball coach. We found him still working with teenagers in a Texas community center.
In our initial correspondence with Hines, he proclaimed his innocence, calling for allegations against him, “… the same old conspiracy of the justice system …”
And Hines accepted an interview with 60 minutes. We arranged for him to come to New York. But an hour before the scheduled time, he canceled. So we found him outside his Manhattan hotel.
Jon Wertheim: We were going to ask you about Evelyn Mack Academy.
Aris Hines: Oh, I know nothing, nothing about it.
Jon Wertheim: You don’t know anything about the Evelyn Mack Academy?
Aris Hines: I have nothing to say about this.
Jon Wertheim: You have nothing to say about Evelyn Mack Academy?
Aris Hines: No, because I had no contact with her.
Jon Wertheim: We talked to a lot of kids and a lot of people who said you dropped them.
Aris Hines: Oh no, oh no. It couldn’t, it couldn’t be true.
Jon Wertheim: Couldn’t that be true?
Aris Hines: No, that couldn’t be true. It must be, it must be false.
As a result of the Evelyn Mack Academy mess, the students were uprooted. And most of them had to return to their country of origin.
Who oversees these schools which grant so many international visas? It comes down to ICE. Asked about the abuse of the student visa system, they replied that they were investigating suspicious situations, resulting in “… both criminal and civil sanctions …”
But in the cases we investigated, no one seems to have looked after the well-being of the children brought here for their athletic skills.
As for some of the players we followed, Blessing Ejiofor had to return to Nigeria due to his poorly managed visa. But she managed to write a happier chapter. She has returned and has now entered West Virginia.
Souley Doumbia has also just returned to the United States and plays at Navarro College in Texas.
Tacko Fall told us that he wanted to play a leadership role in cleaning up the same sports pipeline he had traveled. In the NBA off-season, he plans to return to Africa to talk to players and their families about the US recruitment process.
Jon Wertheim: How about 16-year-olds in Africa today to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys?
Tacko Fall: It’s hard. It’s hard to do. Especially when you come home and people come to sell you a dream. It is difficult to refuse.
