Kansas basketball: Billy Preston makes embarrassing attempt to reclaim relevance

Nearly six years after his short-lived stint with Kansas basketball, Billy Preston threw the program’s coaching staff under the bus in an embarrassing attempt to reclaim his relevance.

Remember Billy Preston? Of course, you do. Nothing good came out of his tenure with the Jayhawks. After the school suspended him while they looked into the details of a minor car crash he had, the FBI was also investigating the alleged payments of $89,000 that TJ Gassnola made to Preston’s guardian. He never played a collegiate game with Kansas, or with any school for that matter.

In January 2018, Preston decided to play professionally in Bosnia, effectively erasing his college eligibility. Reports said he was frustrated with how the situation was being handled. A year later, he played on three different G-League teams in what will likely be the closest thing to an NBA experience he will obtain.

Preston’s name has been in the dark in recent years. After Kansas self-imposed infractions to its program at the beginning of the past season, the only talk to be had are the punishments the NCAA is giving out.

A recently released 30 for 30 podcast on ESPN titled ‘The Bag Game’ goes into detail regarding Preston’s role in the story. In the 4th and final episode, Preston himself spoke out about the stance KU took in the FBI investigation.

When he asked if he thinks Kansas coaches knew that Gassnola was making the payments to him and his mother, Preston said this:

"“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They weren’t blind to that. They weren’t blind to that at all.”"

These quotes have no say in court, but it is surprising to see Preston say this considering Gassnola himself testified that he hid the information from the coaching staff. He served a year of probation and two months of electronic monitoring, so it is not likely he made up a story to the judge. Preston’s claims ultimately contend that Gassnola gave perjured evidence in the court of law, and Kansas was behind the whole thing.

Now that his NBA dreams are out of the door, it is no coincidence that Preston wants to criticize how KU managed the situation. It was a slight to the Jayhawks’ coaching staff and an attempt to paint himself as a victim. In fact, his mother Nicole Player had this to say about the situation:

"“Victim? If anybody was a victim, it was the family that Adidas preyed on.”"

While this might be true, it is not an explanation as to why her son made baseless statements about the Jayhawks. Everything Preston said defies what went down in the investigation.

Kansas basketball might receive an extensive punishment for their part in the recruitment of him and Silvio De Sousa, but Preston is in the wrong here. Even though he might be bitter about how his basketball career turned out, these statements carry no weight. Preston is seeking attention, and he gained it — there is nothing else to the story.

The 46-minute, four-part podcast can be listened to here.