March 4, 1997 – an unforgettable day

By Ed Odeven

Every year around this time, I remember the day.

It’s unforgettable.

It was a so-called normal Tuesday at Arizona State University – classes, meals and newspaper work at the State Press, the student daily.

But that was before an early evening press conference was held in downtown Phoenix. An FBI press conference.

An FBI spokesman told the gathered media, including myself and State Press photographer Pat Shannahan, that the agency’s probe into point-shaving allegations from 1994 involving the Arizona State men’s basketball team, including games against Washington and Washington State, had concluded.

Bruce Gebhardt, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix office, stated that ASU “is not the subject or focus of the FBI’s investigation.” But that night’s press conference was only a very small part of the story.

Search warrants were prepared. In June 1999, five men, including former ASU guards Isaac Burton…