The upcoming HBO sports documentary “The Scheme,” which premieres on Tuesday, March 31st at 9:00 p.m. EST focuses on the 2017 NCAA corruption scandal from the point of view of Christian Dawkins, an ambitious business-savvy middleman at the center of the FBI investigation that attempted to shake up the college basketball world.
The two-hour documentary directed by Pat Kondelis features audio recordings and video surveillance directly from FBI wiretaps as well as direct access to Dawkins, who holds nothing back as he gives viewers an inside look in how he was able to funnel money to college players and how the feds’ investigation into the NCAA was flawed.
Much of ‘The Scheme’ profiles Dawkins, the son of a well respected high school basketball coach in Saginaw, Michigan, who was able to make connections in the basketball world by organizing AAU games with local up-and-coming talent which later helped him get a job at an agency that represented NBA players.
The Dawkins Name is synonymous with Michigan Basketball.#TheSchemeHBO premieres Tuesday, March 31 at 9 pm on @HBO. pic.twitter.com/SCM5Gel3c4
— HBO Documentaries (@HBODocs) March 27, 2020
After a falling out with the agency, Dawkins, attempted to form his own management company and that’s when he met Marty Blazer, a financial adviser, who agreed to fund Dawkins’ startup if Dawkins would bring college players to him as potential clients. Unfortunately for Dawkins, Blazer was an FBI informant who had been working the feds after getting busted defrauding $2.3 million from his clients.
The FBI proceeds to arrest Dawkins and tries to get him to bribe college coaches but he refuses to cooperate which leads to the Southern District of New York hitting him with unprecedented charges due to his involvement in paying college players.
Many of the revelations in ‘The Scheme” like FBI agents being accused of stealing thousands of dollars during the investigation, Marty Blazer’s questionable involvement with the feds and Will Wade and Sean Miller’s wiretap conversations have been extensively covered over through the years but it’s still pretty jaw-dropping to see it all put together in a documentary.
While everyone from the NCAA, to the FBI, to the Southern District of New York, and several college coaches come out looking bad in “The Scheme”, Christian Dawkins is the true star of the doc. Dawkins is intelligent, defiant, and extremely charismatic, it’s easy to see how he was able to navigate the shadier parts of the college basketball world. He never denies that he helped colleges pay players he just insists that it’s not a federal crime to do so, and he’s right.
In the end, there isn’t much new information in “The Scheme” for those who followed the story closely at the time but it’s still a well-told, well-put-together documentary that proves that the 2017 investigation by the FBI was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“The Scheme” is set to air on HBO on Tuesday March 31st at 9pm on HBO and HBO streaming platforms.
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