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May 31, 2010
Wizards Pre-Draft Workouts: The Path of Derrick Caracter
TruthAboutIt.net
A tale about the sleazy world of U.S. amateur basketball and the toll it takes on young men's lives passes through — you guessed it — Atlantic Yards.
The connections [Eddie Lau] made boosted him to one of the most well-known runners (or “street agents”) in the New York City area, serving as a recruiter for the Long Island Panthers, the AAU team of Caracter. Tom Sicignano, who has been associated with AAU team Brooklyn USA, a rival of the Panthers, claimed that Lau once gave one of his players a pager, which was later confiscated by that player’s high school coach. Sicignano, also known as “Ziggy” was, of course, a former manager of the famed Gold Club in Atlanta. He was the one who spilled the beans on the crimes of former Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan and all the NBA players who received “services” at the famed strip club trial in 2001. Ziggy also admitted that he paid players with prostitutes, transported prostitutes across state lines and bribed police officers, along with having connections to the Gambino crime family.
Ironically, when Ziggy felt that the rival Long Island Panthers and coach Gary Charles, along with Eddie Lau, were trying to steal Sebastian Telfair from his program, he said, “I’m not a priest, but compared to these other guys, I’m Cardinal Ziggy O’Connor.” Good one, buddy. Sicignano was more recently seen as a supporter of New Jersey Nets minority owner Bruce Ratner and his efforts to procure Atlantic Yards, where the new home of the Nets, the Barclays Center, is currently being built. Ratner gave Sicignano and Brooklyn USA $10,000 in 2005.
So many back room connections, so much seediness.
NoLandGrab: Not sure if that last line is meant for amateur hoops or Atlantic Yards, but it's certainly befitting for both.
Posted by eric at May 31, 2010 8:38 AM