Nets’ Shackleford Says He Accepted Money at N.C. State

New Jersey Nets forward Charles Shackleford said Sunday that he accepted money while playing at North Carolina State.

“You don’t think it will come back to hurt you,” Shackleford told The News and Observer of Raleigh in an interview at Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, N.J., where he was being treated for an infected elbow.

“But in the long run it does. What I did was wrong, but I don’t think it was major. I was a kid in college and I had no money, so I took money.”

Shackleford, who left N.C. State in 1988, accepted almost $65,000 from two men, said his agent, Salvatore DiFazio of Somerville, N.J. DiFazio said in a telephone interview that Shackleford accepted money from an unidentified sports agent who hoped to represent the player after his college career.

Jim Valvano, N.C. State basketball coach, said he knew nothing about a relationship between Shackleford. “Obviously, I’m disappointed,” Valvano said. “I’m concerned. It points out another of the areas in which we are all so vulnerable in college athletics.”

N.C. State’s basketball program was placed on NCAA probation in December.