Continuing Saga: Zion Step Father allegedly received $400,000 payment
Court filings indicate that Zion's Steph Father (and Zion) received a payment of $400,000. All of this stems from an agent who claims Zion didn't complete his end of a deal. The agent is suing for 100 million. The claim seems to hinge on the basis that Zion was never eligible to play for Duke and as part of this claim, evidence is being presented showing he was receiving payments. Zion broke the contract by using North Carolina law which protects student athletes. The agency counter sued saying they coordinated the payment of 400k to Zion's step father which would make Zion ineligible to begin with, and as such, not protected by North Carolina Law. Zion's lawyers have claimed the payment claim is frivolous and fraudulent.
https://sports.yahoo.com/affidavit-alleges-400-k-payment-to-zion-williamsons-stepfather-in-2018-210016884.html
Honestly. Is anyone shocked by this?
Only thing shocking about it is that anyone would care.
I care. Who wouldn't care?
Signed, Anyone
Not one bit. Duke has been paying players for the better part of two decades.
But, but, but Coach K is the pillar of honesty. Why would he ever need to pay anyone? They win. Why wouldn't players want to go to Dook? /s.
crg is shocked by this
FWIW this alleged payment was not to get Zion to play for Duke. It was a payment to Zion's stepfather to ensure Zion signed with a particular agency before entering the NBA.
(Zion was paid by Duke, clearly, I'm not disputing that! But this part of the story has nothing to do with Duke, as far as I can tell.)
Except if they played an ineligible player, whether knowing or not, wouldn't they vacate all wins with him? Asking, not stating as a fact. Which- vacated wins are kind of joke anyway except for Bobby Bowden who was fighting it out with JoePa for all time wins when some FSU wins were vacated.
I'm shocked. Shocked Duke let it get this far. I dislike Coach K as much as Izzo. He is so smarmy.
Only thing shocking is how many people a) get upset at our recruiting while simultaneously b) don't want us to pay players hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And people wondered why Beilein was like "nah man... I'm good." and bolted to the NBA.
Now that they didn’t go well, my dream is that he takes some time to spend with his family. And when Martelli leaves to go coach in the NE again, he commits to coming back to sit on Howard's bench, by then a premier coach who has established his own name and program with no former Beilein players on the team.
Beilein accepts that they'll probably never win a national title doing things the right way but the fun is in the challenge of trying.
They get close for 3 years, in year 4, Beilein's last they win the National Title and ESPN/Disney create a movie so I can relieve it forever.
I said it was a dream, dammit.
I, for one, am shocked. Shocked, I say.
Here's what I don't get, why the hell is his former marketing rep suing him and dragging him and his family through the mud? She lost her client but she has representing a potential hall of famer on her resume. Now? Now, she'll never get another high profile client in her life. I'd love a good explanation for this other than she's the dumbest person in the world.
My 20 minutes of research made clear that she was a borderline predatory "agent" with no substantive experience who signed Zion to a noxious deal. Zion's camp alleges that she borderline stalked them, etc. She was never going to get a real deal with anyone with the chance for real $$$ -- there is a reason he signed with CAA, honest-to-god professional agents, instead of her. She wants her payday for manipulating an 18 y/o.
Sounds like his stepfather was the predator. Making money off of his stepsons back.
There can be more than one predator, especially when talented 18-year-old men with the potential to make millions are involved.
Is she, though? If she wins, she'll have $100M to spend on getting more clients. Or to retire... And, since she counter sued about handling money transfers, I suspect she has receipts. The court doesn't care about college eligibility - it's contract law. Providing she has the receipts, Zion is gonna pay $100M.
Personally, I'd retire...
It's not contract law, it's a question of NC state law interpretation. The crux of the issue is whether the phrase "eligible student athlete" means "at the time, to the NCAA" or "on the facts as presented at trial, decided by the judge/jury." (Because if Zion was an "eligible student athlete," this contract is void. If not, it's not.)
If this results in Coach K getting tarred and feathered, I'd say she's doing the lord's work. Never mind her impure intentions. If that happens I'd be open to wearing a burlap face mask for the next five years.
On the other hand if you let clients break contracts with you with no repercussions, that seems like a bad thing too.
I now think Zion's shoe was sabotaged by a disgruntled agent.
No WAY!!!! Zion turned down ~$120K to play at Kansas, no way he did this! I refuse to believe he'd accept any money because he turned it down at Kansas!
I'm sure the NCAA will get to the bottom of this, promptly. No doubt Coach K will enlighten us all with another 'HaRummph' about what a great citizen he is and how he demands fair play for all. I'm sure it's all a big misunderstanding.
I wish I had the button to upvote this ^^^ because I literally just LMAO.
On some level, this all seems weird. I mean, we're talking about regulating payments to his step-father? Maybe Zion had control over this, I don't know, but the idea that, like, my half-uncle could sign a deal based on a connection to me and burn my eligibility is nuts. (I get the idea -- that these are sham transactions that go to the athlete -- but it seems insane to me that it's policed like this.)
Yes, I am sure Zion never knew anything about this and it had no influence on his decision. [insert biggest eyeroll ever]
We can debate the merits of enforcement, but if you are going to try and police payments, then you can't really say "but only if it goes to the player directly, it does not matter if his mother gets $1M."
The payment above had nothing to do with Duke -- it was to get him to sign with some random sports agency! (He was paid to go to Duke, though. Just not by this dude.)
But there's a second-order thing. Nobody's arguing here that Zion got this benefit. I think that's the question to ask -- not did someone in his family sign a contract? I think we all have that uncle who we don't really know and who would for sure (if were Zion-level talents) sign an agreement for a few hundred grand to try to persuade us to join an agency or whatever.
If you're worried about Zion profiting from something, ask that question. Don't ask if anyone in his family signed a contract.
I'm not sure why you keep saying "uncle". The guy is his step FATHER. That's not some distant family member. They guy is married to Zion's mom. Why are you comparing him to "that uncle who we don't really know"?
Because I don't know the relationships in Zion's family and wouldn't presume to.
Laremy Tunsil's stepfather is widely believed to be responsible for the hack that cost Tunsil millions. (remember the Ole Miss OT who fell like 10 spots in the draft because of a weed video that was leaked draft night?) Animosity between families when there's this much money involved seems reasonably common; even more so when it's not a biological parent.
What's more, I find it hard to believe that working with this dinky "sports agency" in Canada was in Zion's best interests. Shit, working with anyone who would even paper this deal isn't in Zion's best interests. The whole story reads to me like someone out for themselves, not out to help Zion.
Policed like what??? I don't see any policing going on.
Zion is gone so it doesn't matter to him at this point. Duke is one of the 'protected' programs so they are good. Just a bit of noise.
North Carolina A&T is so gonna get punished for this.
If they won't touch Will Wade when hes on FBI wiretaps then you can forget about Coach K even getting a small scratch in this.
Anything that exposes Coack K and Duke for what they really are, rather than the holier than thou image they're credited with is A-OK with me.
I’m guessing the IRS would like to know if he received $400k.
This exactly. The IRS and states (the latter so adamant about taxing athletes a prorated share of the time they are playing in state) want their tax money. If he didn't pay taxes good luck!
Don’t care, NCAA is a joke. When can we put up the Fab 5 banners?
Remember when Duke was supposed to be the wholesome, upstanding team that saved America from the renegade Fab Five?
She seems like a female Michael Avenatti
At this point, what does it matter? Zion is safely off in the NBA. The NCAA can't touch him or his parents, and they can't (won't?) do anything to unsettle their golden goose down in Durham. Duke's not going to stop doing it because they know they'll get away with it.
Even if Zion has to pay that money back with interest, it's frickin' pocket change when you stack it up to his NBA salary and his endorsements with Gatorade and the Jordan brand.
Uhhh 100 millions dollars is pocket change? To whom? Zion's rookie contract is 2 years, 20 million. Shoe deals and such are going to make up for that by a large margin but 100 mil is NOT pocket change for anyone. Even guys like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
I was referring to the 400k that was allegedly paid.....
Zion iza lion.
Did no one read the article that clearly lays out that this “payment” is most likely a forgery and targeted other people in much the same way?
No. Why?
Zero confidence this goes anywhere and that’s just from a legal standpoint.
The NCAA will do nothing with it. Duke will do nothing about it.
And when I look back at the Michigan b-ball program, what a mistake to self impose. Banners are down and it took years for the program to recover.
In other related news, the NCAA just shipped Coach K's annual allotment of gold plated toilet paper to he and his family. Delivery date is expected tomorrow by 4:30pm.
What's a Steph father? Is he Steph Curry's father too?
The important thing here is that Eastern North Carolina State Agriculture and Technical School will receive the harsh NCAA penalties they deserve!
Meh. When Zion shows up in Orlando looking like Pablo Sandoval, no one will remember this.