College basketball coach is sued by his former players over $1.5million broken NIL promise
Florida State Seminoles head men’s basketball coach Leonard Hamilton is being sued by six of his former players for alleged unpaid name, image and likeness compensation.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Florida’s Leon County court, six players who have since dropped out of the program allege Hamilton promised each of them $250,000 in NIL payments from his “business associates.”
Those players – USF’s De’Ante Green, UTSA’s Primo Spears, Xavier’s Cam’Ron Fletcher, Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley, and two players no longer playing in college basketball – Darin Green Jr. and Josh Nickelberry – were named as plaintiffs.
They all claim they never received payment, despite promises from Hamilton in two separate team meetings and in individual conversations with some players and their families.
This pack contains hundreds of text messages exchanged by players with each other, with Hamilton and with Will Cowen – an executive at one of FSU’s NIL collectives.
Many of these players moved to Florida State thinking they would receive this money.
Florida State basketball coach Leonard Hamilton is being sued by six of his former players
Prosecutors say Hamilton, who has coached FSU since 2002, failed to provide promised NIL funds of $250,000 each. Players boycotted a training session and threatened to boycott a match.
When it never happened, these players claim they boycotted a practice for the Feb. 17 game against Duke, “walking out of the gym” to show their frustration.
They all planned to boycott the match as well before Hamilton got wind of their plan and told them the money would be in their accounts the following week.
All six players appeared in the game against Duke – a 76-67 loss – but it never would have happened.
Further text messages from players to Cowan and Hamilton showed their frustration, saying they were “fed up with the lies” and emphasizing their need for the money to pay car notes, rent and taxes.
One of the six players, identified by Yahoo Sports as one of the team’s leaders for the 2023-2024 season, told Cowen in a message: “This money situation is weighing on a lot of guys and affecting guys on the field.” The player added that he tried to “make the guys understand” the reasons behind possible delays, but “it’s hard when they’re told $250,000.”
Last season, Florida State finished with a 17-16 record under Hamilton – 10-10 in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play.
So far this season, FSU has started 9-4 and 0-2 in conference play. The Seminoles begin the bulk of their conference schedule this weekend as they host Syracuse.
Hamilton has been a college basketball head coach for 37 seasons. Previous stops include four seasons at Oklahoma State and ten seasons at the University of Miami (FL). After one season managing the NBA’s Washington Wizards (where he coached Michael Jordan), Hamilton took over Florida State in 2002 and has been there ever since.
Former Florida State basketball players Jalen Warley (L) and De’Ante Green (R)
Former Florida State basketball players Darin Green Jr. (L) and Primo Spears (R)
Former Florida State basketball players Cam’Ron Fletcher (L) and Josh Nickelberry (R)
He has a coaching record of 652-496, which ranks him 35th among all-time Division I coaches in terms of wins. Among active coaches, Hamilton has the eighth-most DI wins, behind Arkansas’ John Calipari, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, Kansas’ Bill Self, Oregon’s Dana Altman, Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson.
Hamilton has appeared in the NCAA Tournament, commonly referred to as “March Madness,” 11 times. During the tournament, he has compiled a 14-11 record and has reached the Sweet 16 five times (four with FSU) and the Elite Eight once.
The lawsuit is the latest in a growing number of legal battles by NIL.
Matthew Sluka, a starting quarterback for the UNLV football team, left the program after three games in September because he was never given a $100,000 NIL deal.
Former Florida quarterback Jaden Rashada, now at Georgia, sued Gators coach Billy Napier last year over an unpaid $13 million NIL deal.
Several Tulsa football players claim they never received thousands of NIL pledges from former coach Kevin Wilson.