Adidas Reportedly Paid Zion Williamson’s Family While He Was a Recruit

In a tradition that feels as old as time itself, a superstar player reportedly got paid when he was still an amateur. NBA star Zion Williamson is pretty far removed from his college days, but now it’s once again being brought up following a civil suit. Court documents filed in a civil lawsuit between former college player Brian Bowen and Adidas show that several payments were made to Williamson’s family in 2016 and 2017.

This was before his one season at Duke.

Via News and Observer:

“Though the NCAA cleared Zion Williamson in 2018 to play his lone basketball season at Duke and the school in 2019 found the claims he’d violated his eligibility had no merit, evidence of payments between shoe companies and his family continue to surface.

Court documents filed as part of a civil lawsuit between former college player Brian Bowen and Adidas detail a series of payments the company allegedly made to Williamson’s family in 2016 and 2017 prior to his Blue Devils’ career.

Starting with a $404 payment on Nov. 14, 2016, a list of nine payments are detailed with the last being an $800 payment on Sept. 12, 2017, according to the letter. The largest payment was $1,107 on Feb. 14, 2017, the letter state”

New docs filed in the Brian Bowen vs Adidas suit indicate former Adidas exec. Chris Rivers paid the family of Zion Williamson.
"Rivers may have transferred $3,000 per month to the Williamson family for an unspecified period of time."
Adidas "does not know" the specific purpose pic.twitter.com/zvraWCNKZz

— Jason Riley (@JasonRileyWDRB) May 4, 2021

[sportsbookaffiliates]

This is the second time Williamson’s family has been accused of accepting payments.

In 2020, Williamson’s former agent Gina Ford served him with requests for admission that he received impermissible benefits to attend Duke and wear or use Nike or choose an Adidas-sponsored school.

NEW: Zion Williamson’s former marketing agent has served requests for admission in their lawsuit asking him to admit that he received “money, benefits, favors or other things of value” to attend Duke University and to wear and/or use Nike and Adidas.

Wow. That escalated quickly. pic.twitter.com/59gWX5bNKX

— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) May 10, 2020

Zion is already smack dab in the middle of NBA stardom.

The money he makes now is laughable compared to the payments he allegedly received.

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