Report: Josh Jackson’s mother involved in NCAA recruitment scandal

A report from Yahoo! Sports early Friday said Phoenix Suns forward Josh Jackson’s mother, Apples Jones, received $1,700 before he committed to Kansas.

Jackson committed to Kansas in mid-April of 2016 and his mother received a $1,700 advance of $2,700 on Feb. 1 of that year, per the report.

The payments were revealed in emails obtained from a multi-year federal investigation that has rocked the college basketball world.

The arrests of 10 individuals in late September, including Arizona’s Emanuel “Book” Richardson, marked the investigation making landfall. The emails mentioned in the report were seized by the federal government during a raid of former NBA agent Andy Miller’s office that same day as the arrests.

Christian Dawkins, a former associate of Miller who was one of the 10 arrested, “filed expense reports seeking reimbursement for thousands of dollars that he reported as being paid to college and high school players and their families,” according to the report.

Jones denied receiving money from Miller or Dawkins to ESPN’s Jeff Goodman.

Jackson commented on that initial report Friday afternoon at the Suns’ shootaround.

“I can’t really talk about nothing I don’t really know about,” Jackson said. “I’m going to look into it a little more, obviously, but at the moment I don’t really have any information.”

Jackson said he did not “recall” being approached by the agency Miller and Dawkins were from.

In a separate report from Yahoo! Sports later that night, additional details were revealed in emails between Dawkins and Miller.

One of the emails goes over the situation for Jones.

His situation is going to get done at the very end. UA is giving her 10k a month and she’s also getting paid by adidas now — so she’s plenty taken care of. She actually works all of under armours events now and talks to the parents as a “advisor”. I do think she’s honest when she says she has only spoken with (agent) Bj Armstrong at this point. After further dialog I don’t think Duffy will be in there — but you can’t count him out ever. We will have to discuss how we will handle the moms boyfriend moving forward.

Per the report, Jones started her own AAU program funded by Under Armour.

As for taking care of “moms boyfriend,” an item in Dawkins’ expense report from two months earlier shows an expenditure of $367.01 at a Candlewood Suites with the description, “Room for Josh Jackson stepdad.” As Yahoo Sports reported earlier Friday, Dawkins’ expense reports also list two cash advances to Jones totaling $2,700.

The additional details regarding Jackson’s potential involvement in the scandal come after an ESPN report revealed Arizona head coach Sean Miller had discussed payments to ensure his star freshman Deandre Ayton would commit to the Wildcats.

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