6 former Florida State players sue Leonard Hamilton over $1.5 million NIL dispute
12/30/2024 10:40 AM
As Florida State basketball tries to get its feet underneath it in ACC play this season, the program now has the cloud of an NIL lawsuit hanging over it. On Monday, six former Seminoles filed a lawsuit alleging that they were promised NIL money by head coach Leonard Hamilton and then were never paid, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.
“The six plaintiffs — Darin Green Jr., Josh Nickelberry, Primo Spears, Cam'Ron Fletcher, De'Ante Green and Jalen Warley — allege that Hamilton promised each of them $250,000 in NIL payments from the coach's ‘business partners,'” Dellenger wrote.
In the lawsuit, the players state that they were promised the money on multiple occasions, both as a group and individually, but were never paid. As a result of the dispute, the six players walked out of a Florida State practice last season and had planned to boycott a conference game against Duke before Hamilton re-affirmed the plan to get them the money. The players played in the game and allegedly were still never paid.
The players also state that some of them transferred to Florida State prior to the 2023-24 season because of the NIL promises. None of them are still on the team this season, with two of them running out of eligibility and the other four all transferring out of the program after last season.
Hamilton has built a reputation as one of the best and most underrated coaches in college basketball. He has been a head coach in the college ranks since 1986, taking a two-year hiatus to coach the Washington Wizards in 2000-2001, and has been the head coach at Florida State since 2002. During his time with the Seminoles, Hamilton has reached the Sweet Sixteen four times and the Elite Eight once. He also had arguably his beat team at Florida State in 2019-20, when the team finished 26-5 and won the ACC regular season title before the NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Florida State basketball is currently 9-4 this year, but it is 0-2 in ACC play. Despite the positive record, Florida State is currently lacking a marquee win over a good team, and it has started conference play with losses against NC State and Louisville. Its next chance to get in the win column in the ACC will come on Jan. 4 at home against Syracuse.
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