Why would this matter to plaintiff?
Had Williamson and his family accepted $400,000 from a marketing group prior to or while playing at Duke, he would not have been eligible.
Williamson left his five-year deal with Ford’s Prime Marketing Sports a month after signing it and shortly before being drafted by the Pelicans in 2019. He sued the agency, claiming that the contract was illegal under North Carolina agent laws in place to protect amateur athletes. Ford’s countersuit against Williamson seeks to prove that he wasn’t eligible to play at Duke to begin with and therefore not protected by the law.
Other claims of housing, luxury cars
In June, Ford filed legal documents accusing Williamson’s family of accepting housing provided by a Duke alumnus and three luxury cars while Williamson was at Duke. That filing also sought testimony from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Zion’s lawyer: ‘Frivolous’ and ‘fraudulent’
Williamson’s attorney Jeffrey S. Klein responded to Thursday’s claims, describing them in a statement to The Athletic’s Daniel Wallach as “frivolous” while calling the documents cited in the claim as “fraudulent.”
“The alleged ‘agreements’ and driver’s license attached to these papers are fraudulent — and neither Mr. Williamson nor his family know these individuals nor had any dealings with them,” the statement reads. “We had previously alerted Ms. Ford’s lawyers to both this fact and that we had previously reported the documents to law enforcement as forgeries, but they chose to go ahead with another frivolous filing anyway.
“This is a desperate and irresponsible attempt to smear Mr. Williamson at the very time he has the opportunity to live his ream of playing professional basketball.”
The documents in question can be seen below. If you look closely at the license you’ll notice that Williamson’s height and weight measurements are transposed.