A group of former Florida State basketball players, including one, Jalen Warley, who was, very briefly, a member of the UVA Basketball program, has filed suit against FSU Basketball coach Leonard Hamilton, alleging that Hamilton reneged on promised $250,000 NIL payouts.
“The Plaintiffs in this matter, who were on the FSU men’s basketball roster during the 2023-24 season, were all made the same promise by Hamilton. If they committed to and remained enrolled at FSU, performing for the men’s basketball team, then they would each receive $250,000.00. Hamilton promised this sum of money directly and reinforced it many times over to the Plaintiffs and their family members,” the suit, filed on Monday in Leon County, Fla., Circuit Court, alleges.
Wait, it gets better.
Per the suit, the group – including Warley, Darin Green Jr., De’Ante Green, Cam’Ron Fletcher, Josh Nickleberry and Primo Spears – threatened to boycott the Feb. 17 home game with Duke over the non-payment issue.
Read the suit: click here.
“Hamilton panicked,” the suit alleges. “In a team meeting where all scholarship players were present, Hamilton reiterated that each player would be paid $250,000.00 and that it would hit their accounts the following week. Hamilton stated that he understood why the players were frustrated and committed to fully paying each player $250,000.00 before the conclusion of the 2023-24 men’s basketball season.”
Holy bejeezus.
None of the six, as you might guess, are still with the FSU Basketball program.
As we know, Warley was briefly at UVA, before leaving, in the wake of the October retirement of Tony Bennett, to hit the transfer portal again, and eventually landing at Gonzaga, where he is redshirting this season, with the intent to suit up for the 2025-2026 season.
Today’s news might make you wonder if there was maybe something else going on with Warley and UVA besides just Bennett retiring.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Combo guard Jalen Warley hitting the transfer portal again
- UVA Basketball: Jalen Warley’s dad emailed me about his son’s transfer decision
Darin Green and Josh Nickleberry are done, their college eligibility having run out after the 2023-2024 season.
De’Ante Green transferred to South Florida, where he is averaging 7.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game this season.
Cam’Ron Fletcher landed at Xavier, where he is averaging 2.0 points in 6.4 minutes per game.
Primo Spears is at UTSA, where he is putting up big numbers – 22.3 points and 3.4 assists per game.
All were rotation guys for FSU last season, with Darin Green Jr. (11.3 ppg) and Primo Spears (10.6 ppg) double-digit scorers for Hamilton’s team, which, you may remember, got out to a surprising 5-1 start in ACC play before fading down the stretch, losing eight of 12 at one point before finishing with a 17-16 overall record.
The fadeout makes sense now, with everything that was going on behind the scenes.
“Every player on the 2023-24 FSU men’s basketball team roster relied on the promises that Hamilton made when they either decided to transfer to FSU or remain enrolled at FSU and play out the season. However, as the season continued, many players, including the Plaintiffs, became very frustrated by the continuous failure to perform on the myriad promises issued by Hamilton,” the suit alleges.
The issue came to a head in the days leading up to the Feb. 17 game with Duke – incidentally, FSU had a home game on Feb. 10 with UVA, an 80-76 loss to the ‘Hoos, and the ‘Noles also lost on Feb. 13 at Virginia Tech, 83-75.
Between the loss in Blacksburg and the home game with Duke, “members of the 2023-24 men’s basketball team, including the Plaintiffs, decid(ed) to boycott an important practice leading up to a game against one of the most powerful basketball programs in the history of college sports – Duke,” the suit alleges.
“The players walked out of the gym because none of them had received the $250,000.00 in NIL money repeatedly promised to them by Hamilton. Then, they decided, as a group, that they would not participate in the game against Duke,” per the suit.
“When Hamilton discovered the players’ plan, he sat the team down in the film room, where he told the players that they would certainly be paid the $250,000.00 in NIL money he had previously promised each of them and specifically stated that the money would be received by them no later than the following week. Hamilton added that he understood where the players were coming from and that he remained committed to making all the promised payments. The players once again relied on a promise from their head coach and played in the matchup against Duke as well as all remaining games in the 2023-24 men’s basketball season.”
The money never came, which, obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t be reading about this in the lawsuit.
There has been no comment at this stage from either Hamilton or FSU, but it doesn’t take much to figure, this isn’t going to end well for anybody involved, particularly Hamilton, who is 452-285 in 23 seasons at Florida State, with three Sweet Sixteen appearances (2011, 2019, 2021), one Elite Eight (2018) and one ACC regular-season title (in the 2020 COVID year) at the school.
Video: What’s going on down at Florida State?
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Chris Graham
