Wake Forest's Steve Forbes pushes back against Syracuse's Jim Boeheim's claim that ACC rivals "bought" players
On Monday, Wake Forest basketball coach Steve Forbes said he was ready to move on from the accusations Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim made over the weekend that three ACC programs, including Wake, have bought their players.
"Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My (big donor) talks about it, but he doesn't give anyone any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20,000. Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team," Boeheim told ESPN on Saturday.
Forbes responded moments after the claims were made Saturday night, telling CBS Sports' Matt Norlander that Boeheim is "one thousand percent wrong."
"I don't have one player on my team that got NIL to come here. That's a fact. I've NEVER had a player come here for NIL," he told Norlander.
Syracuse closes its regular-season schedule by hosting Wake Forest on March 4.
During the ACC coach's call Monday, Forbes said he and Boeheim spoke early Sunday morning and he was ready to move on.
"There are very few people that respect coach (Boeheim) more than me," Forbes said. "Coach reached out to me around 2:30 a.m. and I'm fine with coach. I think the world of him."
Forbes added he "was all for" players benefiting from NIL.
Pitt's Jeff Capel added earlier during the call he had "no comment and no reaction" to Boeheim's accusation.
"Everyone's entitled to their own opinion," Capel said.
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"This is an awful place we're in, in college basketball," Boeheim told ESPN, adding that Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Villanova's Jay Wright retired to escape the player movement brought on by the transfer portal and NIL deals.
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said dealing with the future of NIL factored into his decision to retire after this season.
"It was exhausting, quite frankly," Brey said Monday.
Syracuse (14-10, 7-6 ACC) missed the NCAA Tournament last season and is on the verge of missing it again. Boeheim is in his 47th season with the Orange.
He walked back his claims, issuing a public apology on Monday.
“I would like to clarify remarks I made in a conversation I had with a media member following our game on Saturday evening,” he said in a statement. “I apologize to the schools I mentioned. I believe the ACC member institutions are in compliance with NCAA rules governing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). It was not my intention to imply otherwise.”
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Wake Forest basketball's Steve Forbes defends program after claims from Syracuse's Jim Boeheim
