Modern-day college basketball is a mess of bad rules, exploited teenagers, and black–market dealings that undermine the integrity of everyone involved. We know this. Blue Chips came out in 1994. Ricky Roe's gym bag (and tractor) taught a generation how the market works. If there's anything that's actually been destroyed by this year's sprawling FBI investigation into bag men and sneaker money, it's not the integrity of the sport, but the plausible deniability among basketball power-brokers who might otherwise ask you to believe any of this is functioning properly.
"I don't know if there's any fixing the NCAA," LeBron James said earlier this month.