Zion asked in lawsuit to admit he received benefits to attend Duke
Gina Ford, the president of the Florida-based Prime Sports Marketing and former marketing agent for Zion Williamson, has served requests for admissions in the company’s lawsuit with Williamson, asking the former Blue Devils star to admit he received, “money, benefits, favors or others things of value” to attend Duke, according to The Athletic‘s legal analyst Daniel Wallach.
In the 11 bullet points published by Wallach, both Williamson and his mother and stepfather, Sharonda Sampson and Lee Anderson are named.
Last June, Williamson sued the firm to end the enforcement of his agreement, insisting that a contract he signed with Prime Sports in April to represent him in endorsement deals is void and illegal under North Carolina’s Uniform Athlete Agent Act (UAAA).
The current Pelicans forward has CAA Sports as his current representation as CAA basketball agent Austin Brown and CAA executive Lisa Joesph-Metelus are the people who primarily handle Williamson’s dealings.
As Sports Illustrated legal analyst Michael McCann noted last year, “Ford hopes Williamson will pay a hefty price for what she depicts as Williamson and CAA conspiring to steal her work and brazenly breach a contract that Williamson had willingly signed.”
In the 88-page complaint that Ford and Prime Sports filed last June, she and her company demanded at least $100 million in damages.
Some of the requests for admission, as obtained by Wallach, include:
• Admit that you knew that Sharonda Sampson demanded and received gifts and economic benefits from persons acting on behalf of Duke University (directly and/or indirectly) to influence you to attend Duke University to play basketball.
• Admit that you knew Lee Anderson demanded and received gifts, money and/or benefits from persons on behalf of Duke University (directly and/or indirectly) to influence you to attend Duke University to play basketball.
• Admit that before you became a student at Duke, you, or person(s) acting on your behalf (including but not limited to Sharonda Sampson and Lee Anderson) received gifts, money and/or other benefits from persons other that NCAA certified agents between 1-1-2014 and 04-14-2019.