Zion Williamson Denies Getting Illegal Benefits

A decision last week by a Florida appeals court determined that Zion Williamson didn’t have to respond to allegations that he received illegal benefits to play at Duke.

He chose to respond anyway in a filing on Monday in the lawsuit between the NBA star and his former marketing agent.

Gina Ford of Prime Sports made claims that he and his family demanded and received benefits, including cash from Nike, cars and housing, to play at Duke.

The filing by Williamson’s legal team stated that Ford’s attorneys made accusations based on “salacious and false rumors from unreliable ‘sources’ outside the pleadings.”

Williamson’s team said that Ford cited “Wikipedia articles, Zillow estimates, and hearsay ruled inadmissible by other federal judges. They even embrace rank speculation that Duke intentionally violated NCAA rules. … Defendants’ allegations are baseless but, more importantly for the purposes of this Motion, irrelevant.”

Williamson is seeking to invalidate a contract he signed with Ford, claiming it’s illegal under North Carolina law. The Florida court’s decision last week put Ford’s countersuit on the back burner, essentially moving the venue back to North Carolina.

It’s likely that Ford’s attempts to show that Williamson should have been ineligible to play at Duke were based on a strategy of showing that he wasn’t a “student athlete” and thus wasn’t protected under the specified North Carolina law.

Much of Williamson’s filing combats that logic. It points out that Ford herself referred to Williamson as a student-athlete and that “A student who ‘engages in’ intercollegiate sports is a “student-athlete,” full stop.”