Gerry Broome/Associated Press
When partners in a budding sports agency wanted to do business with Robert Williams, then a basketball star at Texas A&M with bright pro prospects, they did so with a bold show of good faith: They bought a pair of sneakers, stuffed $11,000 alongside the shoes in their box and shipped the entire package, via FedEx, to Williams.
The plan, laid out in a Manhattan courtroom by a financial adviser turned government witness, was one of several stunning revelations Thursday in the bribery trial of a would-be agent and a fired shoe-company consultant.
Still in its first week, the trial has already lifted the veil over the shadowy world of college basketball recruiting — offering detail that is both rare and, because of video surveillance by the F.