Former Duke star and future top overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft Zion Williamson is suing a marketing firm based out of Florida in order to end an agreement that was signed between the two parties. Back on April 20th, just five days after Williamson announced he was entering the NBA Draft, the young star signed a five-year deal with Gina Ford a representative of Prime Sports. The agency made it clear that if the agreement were broken they would sue for damages totaling up to $100 million. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news:
Zion Williamson is suing to enforce his termination of an agreement he signed with a Florida marketing company, maintaining their deal was unlawful under North Carolina law. Story on ESPN: https://t.co/yr5erea0ZX
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 13, 2019
Zion Williamson, now represented by CAA for marketing and contractual representation, is hoping the court will find the contract illegal under North Carolina law. Under the Uniform Athlete Agents Act, Prime Sports is not certified by the National Basketball Players Association nor are they a registered agent in North Carolina or Florida. The contract also failed to include a boldface type in capital letters notifying Zion that the agreement would cause him to lose his college eligibility as a student-athlete. This could be a future precedent for other student-athletes no matter what the outcome ends up being. Jeffery Klein, an attorney for Williamson had this to say:
“Prime Sports Marketing’s actions towards Mr. Williamson blatantly violated the North Carolina statute specifically designed to protect student-athletes…Prime Sports Marketing’s continued threats against Mr. Williamson made necessary the filing of this lawsuit.”
The goal of the lawsuit is to find the agreement between the two parties, Zion Williamson and Prime Sports, void thus preventing Prime Sports from acting as agents of Williamson. The full details of the lawsuit can be found here.
