A court motion filed on behalf of attorney Michael Avenatti alleges corruption and secret payouts to elite high school players within Nike’s EYBL circuit.
The document alleges a willingness to pay as much as $35,000 for former Duke player Zion Williamson.
Kentucky was also mentioned in the filing.
Here’s an excerpt:
* “Nike possessed text messages, emails, and other documents from 2016-17 … proving that Nike executives had arranged for and concealed payments often in cash to amateur basketball players and their families and ‘handlers.’”
*Nike EYBL manager Jamal James texted EYBL Director Carlton DeBose and Nike Recruiting Coordinator John Stovall “in February 2017, asking whether they would be ‘willing to do … whatever may be needed for the Zion/Romeo situations as well as the money we’re now going to do for the [redacted due to the player being a minor] kid in Michigan?’”
Stovall, according to the motion, responded:
Langford — 20
Zion — 35 plus
[Minor] — 15
DeBose responded “that he was willing to pay Langford, Zion and [minor] the $70,000 and that they should ‘stay aggressive’ while he got ‘creative’ with the budget,” the motion reads.
Later, “Stovall informed James and DeBose that they still ‘had not presented our new offer’ to Williamson but agreed that it was not a good idea ‘to put it in print.’”
Williamson, who hails from South Carolina, played grassroots ball for teams sponsored by multiple shoe companies and then attended Nike flagship school Duke. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA draft and signed an endorsement deal with Nike. Langford, who hails from Indiana, wound up playing under the Adidas umbrella after that company agreed in the winter of 2017 to sponsor an AAU program run by his father. He attended Adidas-sponsored Indiana and was the 14th pick in the 2019 NBA draft.
* “DeBose told Nico Harrison, Nike’s vice president of North American Basketball Operations, that he [DeBose] was ‘willing to bet that 38 of 40 teams in the EYBL had to pay a moderate to considerable ransom to families just to play in the EYBL. Of those 38 teams these arrangements are being viewed as a contract by the families and players.”
* DeBose, according to the motion, also “acknowledged in an exchange of text messages with an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky that Nike was funneling payments to high school players through at least ten different EYBL coaches.”
* The motion states: “An EYBL coach expressed concern to Nike executives about the fact that players and family members were getting paid and that he couldn’t ‘see how this ends well for Nike or the EYBL. Some of us will be deemed guilty by association, others will be found guilty of failure to supervise.’ ”
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