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Person avoiding prison in bribery bribery sentencing

NEW YORK – Former Auburn assistant basketball coach Chuck Person avoided the prison in a bribery scandal that touched some of the largest college basketball schools.

Person was sentenced to 200 hours of community service on Wednesday during the two years the pilot department will oversee him. Judge Loretta A. Preska said: "No purpose will be served by imprisonment."

Judgment Guidelines asked for two years imprisonment, although three other convicted coaches also received generous sentences.

Person, who was in financial trouble at the time, accepted $ 91,500 in bribes to condemn his relationships with top players to send them to a financial adviser, federal prosecutors said.

Preska defended her decision by saying she was "fiercely" with the prosecution's claim that the person was motivated by "insatiable greed".

"He is literally charity at a mistake," the judge said.

She noted that after signing his first NBA contract, he sent most of the money to relatives and bought his home. She described how he bought homes and cars for family and friends and made continuous donations. Then he abolished profitable work in the NBA to make less money than a college coach.

Person wiped out several tears from his face during the sentence.

Of his crime, he said, "I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway."

Person's guilty plea in March to a bribery conspiracy almost two decades after having been a regular presence at NBA courts, where he played for 13 NBA teams over 13 seasons after being set up by the Indiana Pacers in 1986. In 2010, he & # 39; has a championship ring as assistant coach at the Los Angeles Lakers.

Lawyers wrote that Person's previous financial problems had risen almost as soon as his NBA career ended when he paid $ 30,000 monthly for his former wife, while earning $ 18,000 a year in his first non-playing role at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"Chuck's distinctive focus on basketball, his failure to plan for his financial future, and his unlimited generosity have ultimately had catastrophic consequences," they wrote.

The lawyers said he knew he had violated the NCAA rules and betrayed his players and their families and Auburn University.

By 2016, when he was an assistant coach at Auburn, where he had set a record as the school's top tournament in the eighties, he was deeply in debt with bank loans, including one To finance a community center in its home town, and several private loans, the lawyers wrote. A financial institution has obtained a default verdict that has 25% of Auburn's wages cleared, they added.

"Creditors were impatient, and Chuck became desperate. Chuck was able to get help from many friends, but he was embarrassed and embarrassed," they wrote.

Instead, the man who conquered racism and grew extreme poverty in rural Alabama jumped into the college basketball scandal when his quest for a new loan gave him an introduction to the government co-ordinator ,

His lawyers' submission included letters from Charles Sonny Smith, who coached for 11 seasons during the 1980s in Auburn, and Sam Perkins, another former NBA player who met Person when both participated in the US Olympic team in 1984.

Smith calls Person "my favorite player ever." Perkins said Person was "still a good friend."

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