Bad Sport

The game of basketball just made me really dream big.

I was just a young kid in the ghetto,

playing a game that I loved.

I had no idea what it could do.

But then I realized I could go places I never thought I would go before.

You just gotta go for it.

Hedake, end to end.

Hedake Smith!

- Oh, my. Oh, my. - Hedake.

There's your leader right there, Stevin "Hedake" Smith.

Hedake, doing it with one. Count it!

A spectacular performance by Stevin Smith.

Could you excuse me for a moment, please?

To be honest with you, it's like I can't even find the words to explain

the feeling, you know? Of what I lost.

This is one of the most significant

sports conspiracies involving college athletes in the country.

It was a huge scandal...

on a scale that hadn't been seen in college basketball

in a long, long time, if ever.

Hedake going for the record.

My personal reaction is, "How could you do this? Why would you do this?"

Rumors started spreading around the town

like they had some sort of inside information.

They've all assured me that there's no involvement on their part,

and I believe 'em.

Oh, shit.

There it is.

Oh. Oh, two misses!

My goodness.

I'm thinking, "What's going on with these guys?"

"Are we on the same team right now?"

Arizona State is doing everything it can

to throw this game away.

We're talking about students

who are running operations in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And that's when I saw the big picture.

There was people behind the scenes...

who'd ruined everything.

Having been a sports columnist at the Arizona Republic

for almost 35 years,

I've pretty much lived my life

as a reporter covering the Arizona State college teams.

I started covering Sun Devil basketball in the early '90s,

um, when Bill Frieder became head coach.

It's a fabulous school, tremendous facilities, super campus.

Uh, you know, the weather today is 75 degrees.

At that time, Arizona State was a college that had a lot going for it.

It was a popular school with a mixture

of kids from different backgrounds.

But they had one of the worst basketball programs in the country.

They hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since the early '80s.

They were a sleeping giant and most of us who lived there thought,

"This giant is never going to wake up."

But Friedman made an immediate impact

recruiting the most talented players available.

I mean, highly-ranked guys, and those of us covering the team

were like, "How did he get these people?"

Over the head they go. Oh!

Suddenly, the atmosphere at the arena changed dramatically.

It was awesome,

being a member of the ASU teams,

especially in those years when we were a pretty good team.

We had highly-touted players.

There was Isaac Burton,

Mario Bennett,

Ryan Riley.

We were a unit, working together.

This team lives and dies with the man who has the ball,

Hedake Smith.

Oh, what a heads-up play by Hedake Smith.

He's just been unstoppable.

And then there was the main attraction.

Hedake was unbelievably talented.

...side, at 60, 4.6 left.

Here comes Stevin Smith.

Pulls up from about 40.

It's good! He made it!

Can you believe it? Stevin Smith...

We was like fuckin' top rock stars. I mean, it was amazing.

Point for Hedake Smith!

Oh, my goodness. We got star-studded treatment.

Like, everywhere you go, pretty much somebody knew you.

But Hedake was definitely the man.

And to see the way he was getting treated everywhere we went and stuff like this,

I was like, "This is amazing. Like, wow. They love Hedake."

The key to Arizona State is Stevin "Hedake" Smith

and believe me, he becomes a headache for the opposition.

Hedake could absolutely dictate the outcome of a game.

So, coming into the '93 season,

I had high expectations for our team.

And I knew that he wouldn't let us down.

Oh, my goodness!

There was absolutely real pressure on this team, especially on Hedake Smith,

because college basketball's a huge business.

The coaches make a ton of money,

a successful program can bring in millions to a school,

um...

and Arizona State probably felt like, "We've got all the pieces here

to contend for a conference title,

and anything less than that would be a big disappointment."

I mean...

we were making the school all that money

and we didn't get compensated at all.

Smith. Whoa.

They were the ones who was behind the scenes

with millions of dollars.

We were the ones out there on the court.

We all came from humble backgrounds,

and we were all there on basketball scholarships.

You know, my first two years living in a dorm,

I got a check for $130 dollars a month.

You know? And how can you live on that?

There was times I didn't eat.

I'm not making this up.

I would sit in that room hungry, bunch of times.

I would walk to other people's dorms and ask for something to eat.

I mean, that was real.

But, going into my senior year,

you know, I knew I had a good chance of making it to the NBA.

And that's when I could start making big money.

But what happened was, uh...

I hooked up with a guy that I had been knowing

ever since my freshman year.

Uh, a guy by the name of Benny Silman.

He was the campus bookie.

You know, he introduced me to gambling

and that...

That kinda changed everything.

It was January, 1994.

I was trading bond futures at the board of trade in Chicago.

Um...

Twenty-two, 23 years old,

living in a nice high-rise building,

making an absurd amount of money at a young age.

And I remember my phone ringing, and it was Benny.

Benny Silman.

I had met Benny through my brother at Arizona State University,

and, um, he knew I gambled since I was a kid,

so I ended up establishing a bookmaking account with him,

and we developed kind of a friendship.

All of a sudden, he starts talking about, "Joe, I got a fix."

"Joe, I got a fix."

And I shrug it off, like...

I didn't really absorb what he was saying at first.

And then finally he spelled it out.

He spells F-I-X.

And I said, "Oh, wow." And it clicked with me all of a sudden.

"Are you crazy? Man, I'm not into that stuff."

"That's wrong. I want no part of it."

Someone with a moral compass woulda hung up...

but I didn't have that compass in place.

And then Benny said, "Did you ever hear of Hedake Smith?"

I said, "No idea."

He said, "Hedake's the point guard for the ASU basketball team."

"He's an absolute basketball stud."

"He dictates everything on the court. And I got him."

"I got him."

He said, "He's a gambler."

"And he's into my bookmaking operation for about $10,000 bucks."

"And he's got no way to pay me right now."

And so, I concocted this plan that the only way he could pay his debt

is to fix a game.

He said, "Joe, we can make some money."

I said, "You know what, Benny?"

"If I'm going to put dollars in this thing,

I wanna verify and validate this thing."

"I gotta talk to this kid."

I remember being on the phone with Hedake and thinking

he was afraid.

I could almost hear his voice trembling.

Oh, yeah, of course I was nervous going into it, you know, but...

at the same time, I owed Benny some money.

So, ain't no turning back.

He says to me, "I'll do this...

but I don't wanna lose."

I said, "Man, you don't have to lose."

"Just don't win by more than I'm gonna tell you to."

I go, "Really?"

"So, you're telling me we can win the game and I can make money?"

Yeah.

Fucking no-brainer.

But, to his credit, he said, "I only wanna do two games."

He said, "Because then I'm gonna have to turn my game up for the NBA scouts."

Um, "It's real important that I get drafted for my family and I."

I said, "Okay." I said, "I'll tell you what,

Benny and I are gonna give you $20,000 bucks a game."

Excuse me.

I mean, oh, man.

I could tell that was a boatload of money to him.

I said, "Listen, if you want to bring on any other players on the team,

that's up to you to do,

but I'm not paying more than $20,000 dollars."

That was, you know, it was a no-brainer. I knew exactly who I could go to.

Isaac Burton was, like, a real special person to me, you know.

He was real cool.

He was Ice.

Isaac Burton. Ice, Ice, Baby. That's me.

Burton, in and on the floor. Look out.

Oh, he is the man.