Michael Avenatti is a scarf guy. I don’t trust scarf guys.
Michael Avenatti is not a good guy. When porn stars turn on you, it’s time to re-evaluate priorities
He showed up uninvited in my living room for the first time as he represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Donald Trump. That suit went nowhere, as did Avenati’s 2020 presidential bid.
Daniels fired Avenatti last month for behavior she described as ‘extremely dishonest’. When porn stars turn on you, it’s time to re-evaluate priorities.
Avenatti didn’t, so he ran afoul of the law..
This afternoon, Avenati was arrested, charged with extortion, and bank and wire fraud for his role in an attempt to lever between $16.5 and $26.5 million out of Nike. Avenati claimed on Twitter that he would release details of more scandalous shoe-related behavior related to college basketball.
Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 25, 2019
That Avenatti is a miserable excuse of a human being is beyond debate, but if he decides to fire his bullet after making bail, there could still be a headline out of this sordid affair other than “Idiot self-absorbed attorney busted”.
Everyone know how it works – or how it used to work before the whole Gatto/Code/Dawkins unpleasantness. Shoe guy gives basketball player’s family cash – basketball player commits to program sponsored by the shoe company. It was seen as cash finding value – mostly victimless, and mostly not an NCAA issue because the shoe guy and the uncle were clever enough to do it without a paper trail.
Avenatti may never make good on his threat, but if he does it and rats out dozens of coaches, maybe the outcome will be to acknowledge the inanity of the rule book as it exists today. After all, if everyone is cheating equally, is anyone really cheating?
The only logical response to Avenatti talking is paying no attention, but if the details are extra salacious, that’s going to be hard for me.
Avenatti is a douche, but sometimes a douche with a good story is worth 15-minutes of our time.