The NBA is looking into allegations that the New York Knicks circumvented league rules by conducting secret workouts with college players.
Teams are not supposed to work out players before the annual predraft camp and can only conduct a certain number of workouts during specified times. According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Knicks director of East Coast scouting Rodney Heard held workouts in gymnasiums in the Atlanta area in violation of these rules, with a May 2007 session resulting in a major knee injury to Kansas All-American Brandon Rush. Rush withdrew from the draft.
Looking for more information on your Knicks? ESPNNewYork.com has you covered. "We will be investigating these allegations," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Tuesday.
The Knicks said in a statement that they are cooperating with the NBA and "defer all comment to them."
Rush had previously said that he was injured in a pick-up game in his hometown of Kansas City, Mo., but he admitted to Yahoo! that it actually happened during a workout with Heard.
"It was [during] drill work, doing a three-man weave," Rush said in a recent interview, according to Yahoo!. "I went up for a dunk, came down and that was it. It was a quick pop in my knee."
Heard worked out Wilson Chandler before the 2007 predraft camp, league sources told Yahoo!, and the Knicks subsequently drafted him.
In addition, DePaul's Dar Tucker said Heard led him in a workout in 2009, and Notre Dame's Tory Jackson said Heard worked with him and Baylor's Ekpe Udoh in 2010.
"Rodney did most of the workouts," Jackson said, according to Yahoo!. "He never really put anybody else in charge of his workouts. He wanted to run all the workouts himself, which was good."
Heard denied being involved in the workouts when reached by Yahoo!.
