New Orleans Pelicans’ star Zion Williamson is being asked to come clean about benefits he allegedly received in exchange to attend Duke.
Zion Williamson‘s hiatus has been occupied by a lawsuit filed by his former marketing agent Gina Ford, who is now claiming Zion may have received benefits to attend Duke.
According to Daniel Wallach, legal analyst for The Athletic, Ford has requested admissions from Zion Williamson in the lawsuit her company filed against him.
Ford is seeking $100 million from Williamson after the New Orleans Pelicans’ rookie sued her firm to get out of a contract he claimed was void, according to Sports Illustrated.
In a nutshell, Zion was trying to get out of a contract with his agent and now the agency is counter suing and things are getting ugly.
Some of the admissions Ford is seeking from Zion Williamson also implicate his mother Sharonda Sampson and stepfather Lee Anderson.
According to Wallach, Zion Williamson is being asked to admit that he took:
"“…money, benefits, favors or other things of value to attend Duke University and to wear and/or use Nike and Adidas.”"
And
"“Admit that you knew that Lee Anderson demanded and received gifts, money and/or other benefits from persons acting on behalf of Duke University (directly and/or indirectly) to influence you to attend Duke University to play basketball.”"
Zion Williamson has been a phenomenon this year for the NBA, so this news, which is still unproven, will undoubtedly gets the league’s attention.
This case has implications for the NCAA, Duke University, Zion Williamson and all of his sponsors and brings up a lot of questions about amateur sports and what should be allowed.
Zion Williamson was already part of this debate after suffering an injury at Duke that had people questioning whether college athletes should be paid.
Zion Williamson’s case is sure to get a lot more attention and ignite future debate, especially with the league on hiatus and no basketball to drown out the noise.