A Miami judge ruled that Zion Williamson must answer questions about whether he took illegal benefits to attend Duke in a lawsuit filed against him.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - The request for admission that was filed
00:10 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last week
00:13 that came to light on Sunday regarding
00:15 former Duke star Zion Williamson
00:18 and the lawsuit he's embroiled in
00:20 with his former agent, Gina Ford, was an eye-opener.
00:24 Just for the sensational questions that it was asking,
00:28 very provocative questions,
00:30 what sort of benefits Zion's parents,
00:34 his mother and stepfather had received
00:36 from people associated with Duke,
00:38 with people associated from Nike,
00:40 with people associated with Adidas,
00:43 and agents during his either high school years
00:46 or his one season as a college basketball player.
00:50 Now, a request for admission
00:51 doesn't necessarily prove anything.
00:54 They could request that Zion Williamson
00:56 prove that he's a unicorn.
00:57 And there would not necessarily be obviously proof of that.
01:00 So this isn't necessarily a damning document,
01:05 but it is a provocative one and one
01:08 that ratchets up the stakes in this lawsuit
01:10 that's been going on since Zion dropped Gina Ford
01:12 as his representative and signed on with CAA,
01:15 the huge agency that represents so many people
01:19 in sports and in entertainment.
01:21 What this will mean for the NCAA going forward,
01:24 not sure, it just raises more questions,
01:27 more smoke around Zion's one season at Duke.
01:30 I think there's more and more reason to suspect at least
01:33 that Zion was not a pure amateur at that time.
01:36 And while I don't think most people care
01:38 whether or not he was paid,
01:39 they do care if Duke and Nike got away with something
01:43 while so many other schools have been hammered
01:46 in the wake of the Southern District of New York
01:48 investigation of college basketball
01:50 and while Adidas also was hammered.
01:52 So we will see whether this splashes any sort of mud
01:56 on either the Blue Devils or on Nike going forward,
01:58 but it certainly increases the stakes in this lawsuit
02:02 between Gina Ford and Zion Williamson.
02:04 (silence)
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