Canadian Myck Kabongo, a guard with the University of Texas basketball team, will reportedly be suspended for the rest of the season after allegedly accepting impermissable benefits from an agent.
According to a Yahoo Sports report, the Toronto native has been under investigation by the NCAA for the past several months and as a precaution the Longhorns have kept him out of their lineup this season.
The report states that while the suspension in most impermissible benefit cases is up to as many as ten games as well as being forced to refund any and all goods received, Kabongo will be hit with a harsher penalty because according to sources with the Texas basketball program, he provided incorrect information to NCAA investigators.
Yahoo is reporting that player agent Rich Paul, who represents Miami Heat star LeBron James as well as Canadian NBA players Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cory Joseph of the San Antonio Spurs, was the centre of the investigation and it involved whether he played a part in Kabongo taking an expenses-paid trip to Cleveland last spring to work out with a professional trainer and if the training session was also paid for or if it was provided for free.
In October, Jerry Powell, the professional trainer in question, told Yahoo Sports that he did in fact work out Kabongo but that Paul was not there at the time.
"I told the NCAA my side of the story," said Powell to Yahoo Sports. "I'm sure Myck told his side. I'm not trying to ruin nobody's eligibility. It's never been about anything but workouts with me. I'm a trainer. That's all. I'm not aligned with anybody. I'm my own person. I don't get caught up with any of that."
It is not an NCAA violation for an agent to have a relationship with a player but financial benefits are not allowed to be promised or provided.
The report also states that Powell claims to have a previous relationship with Kabongo through someone that he played with earlier in his basketball career.
Yahoo reports that Kabongo and Thompson are friends who attended the same high schools before both going to the University of Texas, though not at the same time.
