Six ex-FSU players sue coach Leonard Hamilton over $250k NIL promise

Six former Florida State basketball players filed a lawsuit against head coach Leonard Hamilton on Monday, alleging they did not receive the $250,000 in name, image and likeness compensation that Hamilton promised to them.

The 20-page complaint, filed in Florida’s Leon County circuit court on behalf of Darin Green Jr, Josh Nickelberry, Primo Spears, Cam’Ron Fletcher, De’Ante Green and Jalen Warley, accuses Hamilton of reneging on a pledge to pay them a total of $1.5m in NIL money from his “business partners”.

Spears, Fletcher, Green and Warley all transferred after last season while Green and Nickelberry exhausted their college eligibility.

The filing claims Hamilton promised compensation to every member of the 2023-24 team, a vow that lured several players to transfer to Florida State. The complaint includes a string of text messages, including one that detailed the players’ boycott of a practice and their plan to boycott a 17 February game against Duke. According to the filing, Hamilton compelled the players to take the court with a promise of the money being in their accounts the next week.

The Seminoles finished the 2023-24 season 17-16 and 10-10 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They are off to a 9-4 (0-2 ACC) start this season and next play Saturday at Syracuse.

Hamilton, 76, is in the final year of his contract at Florida State, where he took the reins before the 2002-03 season.

The lawsuit is the latest in a growing number of NIL legal battles.

Matthew Sluka, a starting quarterback for the UNLV football team, left the program after three games in September because he was never paid a $100,000 NIL deal. Former Florida quarterback signee Jaden Rashada, now playing at Georgia, sued Gators coach Billy Napier last year over an unpaid $13m NIL deal. And several Tulsa players claim they were never paid thousands in NIL commitments made by former coach Kevin Wilson.