Court filing alleges $400K paid to Williamson family in '18

The legal fight over NBA rookie Zion Williamson's endorsement potential now includes an allegation that his family received $400,000 from a marketing agency before his lone season for Duke.

Prime Sports Marketing and company president Gina Ford filed a lawsuit last summer in a Florida state court, a cc usi ng Williamson and the agency now representing him of breach of contract. That came a week after Williamson filed his own lawsuit in a North Carolina federal court to terminate a five-year contract with Prime Sports after moving to Creative Artists Agency LLC.

In court filings Thursday in North Carolina, Ford's attorneys included a sworn affidavit from a California man who said the head of a Canadianbased firm called Maximum Management Group ( MMG) t old him he paid Williamson' s family for his commitment to sign with MMG once he left Duke for the NBA.

The documents include a marketing agreement signed by Williamson with MMG from May 2019, a December 2019 “letter of declaration” signed by Williamson and his stepfather agreeing to pay $500,000 to MMG president Slavko Duric for “repayment of a loan” from October 2018, and a copy of Williamson's South Carolina driver's license—which listed Williamson's height as “284” and his weight as “6'06.”

In a statement to The Associated Press, Williamson attorney, Jeffrey S. Klein, said t hose documents were “fraudulent.”