NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JANUARY 18: Zion Williamson #1 of the New Orleans Pelicans warms up before a game against the LA Clippers at the Smoothie King Center on January 18, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)Zion Williamson’s former marketing agent Gina Ford is trying to get the star NBA rookie to admit under oath whether or not he received impermissible benefits before attending Duke for one season.
According to Daniel Wallach, a gaming law and sports betting attorney and legal analyst at The Athletic, Ford is asking Williamson to admit that his mother and stepfather received benefits from people directly or indirectly acting on behalf of Duke and Nike to influence Williamson to attend Duke.
The requests also allege that Williamson’s mother Sharonda Sampson and stepfather Lee Anderson, “demanded or received gifts, money, contract(s), and/or economic benefits” from persons on behalf of Nike and Adidas to wear their company’s shoes. Additionally, the payments from Adidas were allegedly made as an “attempt to influence” Williamson to attend a school outfitted by Adidas.
Ford and her company, Prime Sports Marketing, LLC, have been embroiled in lawsuits with Williamson since last year. Williamson originally signed with Prime Sports but he and his family filed a lawsuit to break the agreement last June, claiming it was “unlawful under North Carolina law.” Williamson went on to sign with CAA.
Below are the court documents Wallach obtained which contain Ford’s requests for admission.
NEW: Zion Williamson’s former marketing agent has served requests for admission in their lawsuit asking him to admit that he received “money, benefits, favors or other things of value” to attend Duke University and to wear and/or use Nike and Adidas.
Wow. That escalated quickly. pic.twitter.com/59gWX5bNKX
— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) May 10, 2020
What does this all mean? We’ll see. Ford can ask for anything in these documents, but getting Williamson to admit it or finding proof is a whole different matter.
It’s worth keeping an eye on this moving forward though.
