The recruitment of Dennis Smith Jr. from Fayetteville to N.C. State involved years of coaching visits, a helicopter and, according to federal investigators, a $40,000 payment to ensure that he’d remain committed to the Wolfpack and, perhaps, to the idea of signing an endorsement deal with adidas.
Smith, who played one season at N.C. State before entering the NBA draft, is not named in the U.S. Department of Justice’s most recent indictment in a college basketball corruption case. Yet the details in that indictment make clear that an allegation involving N.C. State is related to Smith’s recruitment.
Smith isn’t accused of a crime.