Florida-based agent Gina Ford thought she had "bagged a career-changing client when Zion Williamson signed a contract with her marketing firm" in April '19, but a federal court judge in Greensboro ruled the contract, which spawned two lawsuits, is "null and void because Ford violated North Carolina’s athlete-agent laws," according to Steve Wiseman of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSEVER. Issuing her final ruling in Williamson’s lawsuit against Ford and her Prime Sports Marketing agency, Judge Loretta Biggs yesterday said that "none of the allegations Ford’s legal team filed claiming Williamson violated his NCAA eligibility at Duke mattered in this case." The North Carolina Uniform Athlete-Agent Act (UAAA) stipulates that Ford "needed to be registered with the state," and she was not. The contract needed "to include boilerplate language stating that any athlete signing the deal was forfeiting NCAA eligibility," and it did not. By late May, Williamson had "decided he wanted Creative Artists Agency to handle his marketing and contract negotiations." He informed Ford he was "breaking the contract," and he signed with CAA. On Jan. 20, Biggs issued "an initial opinion that the contract was void." Ford’s attorneys filed motions to "have that opinion reconsidered," but Biggs yesterday said that Ford’s attorneys had not "presented any evidence that would change her mind" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 9/16).
