The New Era - Former FSU Basketball Players Are Suing Leonard Hamilton Over Unpaid NIL Deals, Reportedly Led A Boycott Of Practice Over Lack Of Payments

[Source] - Six former Florida State basketball players filed a lawsuit Monday against their former coach, Leonard Hamilton, over unpaid promises of NIL compensation that total $1.5 million and acknowledged within the documents that they boycotted a practice last season over the missed payments.

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.”

The players never received the payments despite Hamilton promising the money to each member of the 2023-24 team in two separate team meetings as well as in individual conversations with some players and their families. Several players transferred to Florida State under the assurance that they would receive the money.

Welcome to the new era of college sports where broken NIL deals can now lead to former players suing a head coach. Let this be a lesson to anyone and everyone, get a deal in writing. We're seeing more of these types of stories leak out across college sports of broken NIL deals, deals not being met, etc. Really the NCAA only has themselves to blame considering they refused to adapt years ago and now are dealing with the fallout of the court system constantly ruling against them. If only they had some sort of idea that this could happen. 

I do love the idea of leading a boycott of practice before the Duke game last year though. That'll show him. It's not even like Florida State was good last year so what's the point of practice anyways? Let's get ahead of something though since I know people will make a big deal of it. When Leonard Hamilton retires (coming soon) it won't be because of NIL. Coaches can't keep using that crutch: 

Old people retire. That's what they do. Sometimes that's the only part of the story. But this goes back to the whole NIL world. It's chaos because there are no guardrails and people can make promises and back out. Get everything in writing. No one gives a shit what people are paid. Just make it public, sign a contract, whatever. We're still going to cheer for laundry and whatever name of the college we like. 

Now, I have no idea what the hell this lawsuit is going to do. This seems to be the reasoning: 

Again, it's just chaos out there and we're going to see more of these sort of stories. We're going to hear about guys transferring over lack of payment and lack of holding promises true. Tough to have this come out a week after getting your ass kicked by Louisville too.