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Christian Dawkins claims he never spoke with Arizona’s Sean Miller regarding payment to Deandre Ayton

Washington v Arizona

TUCSON, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 07: Head coach Sean Miller of the Arizona Wildcats reacts during the second half of the NCAAB game against the Washington Huskies at McKale Center on February 07, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona. The Huskies defeated the Wildcats 67-60. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

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Christian Dawkins was found guilty of two of six charges he was facing in federal court during the second college basketball corruption case on Wednesday afternoon. But perhaps the most interesting thing that happened involving Dawkins was his comments to reporters following the jury’s verdict.

Dawkins was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery as the two-week college basketball corruption trial concluded in New York on Wednesday. Afterwards, reporter Adam Zagoria asked Dawkins how he would have answered a question on the witness stand about Arizona head coach Sean Miller knowing that Arizona players were being paid. Government lawyers objected before Dawkins could answer in both instances as Dawkins was never given the chance to answer under oath.

Zagoria’s question follows up a previous ESPN report from Mark Schlabach in February 2018 in which Dawkins allegedly had a phone call with Miller centering around an alleged payment to star center Deandre Ayton.

Downplaying the alleged phone call, and Miller’s alleged payment to Ayton, Dawkins gave some surprisingly candid on-the-record quotes for a man who was just convicted of a federal crime.

“I’m not going to answer that,” Dawkins said to Zagoria. “Because this is the thing, I don’t see nothing wrong with it so I’m not gonna throw nobody under the bus for something that I agree with.

“I’m not going to put (Miller) in a position that could hurt him. It’s just too sensitive for me. I don’t care that much. I don’t want him to lose his job.

“I wasn’t there. I just got out of criminal court case for the last two months. I had no involvement with Deandre Ayton, that’s a fact,” Dawkins continued. “So the whole (February 2018) ESPN report (that said Dawkins and Miller discussed paying Ayton), that’s something I couldn’t say is accurate because I never had conversations about delivering Deandre Ayton to Arizona for Sean Miller. Didn’t happen.”

Dawkins also reiterated to Zagoria that it was Arizona assistant coach Book Richardson who brought up Ayton’s name during the trial.

“Book is saying, ‘Sean [Miller] gave Ayton X,Y,Z.’ I’m just listening,” Dawkins said.

Schlabach’s initial ESPN report said that FBI wiretaps intercepted telephone conversations between Miller and Dawkins in which Miller discussed paying $100,000 to make sure Ayton signed with Arizona. Dawkins’ comments on Wednesday contradict Schlabach’s initial report while none of the alleged phone calls between Dawkins and Miller have been included as evidence during the college basketball corruption trials.