/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63365656/usa_today_12451091.0.jpg)
Despite being charged with trying to extort more than 20 million dollars from Nike, lawyer Michael Avenatti has continued to make eye-opening allegations against the company on Twitter.
Friday evening Avenatti tweeted out perhaps his biggest bombshell yet when he accused the mother of soon-to-be top overall NBA Draft pick Zion Williamson of receiving payments from Nike in order to get the superstar to Duke.
.@DukeMBB - About this denial by Coach K the other day relating to payments by Nike...Can you please ask Zion Williamson’s mother - Sharonda Sampson - whether she was paid by @nike for bogus “consulting services” in 2016/17 as part of a Nike bribe to get Zion to go to Duke? Thx.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 6, 2019
Obviously with Aventthai having been charged with trying to extort money from the company, everything he says needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
However, he did provide links to some potential evidence showing that Nike allegedly bribed athletes into attending Nike colleges.
2/2 - Nike should be criminally indicted on well over 200 counts and should also explain why they misled their investors/the SEC. If I'm lying or the docs are not legit, I challenge @nike to issue a stmt claiming no bribes were ever paid. Just Do It Nike!https://t.co/4gi8MQRcQB
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 6, 2019
When asked about Aventatti’s allegations to potential wrongdoing Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski simply said, “no, there’s nothing there,”
This isn’t the first time Williamson has been linked to controversy. Back in 2017, there was a report of Adidas trying to play dirty in Williamson’s recruitment.
Did Nike pay Williamson’s mother in order to get him to chose Duke? The world will likely never know.
Regardless, it seems Williamson never would’ve ended up a Kentucky Wildcat as John Calipari said on the Dan Patrick Show Friday he did not push hard enough for his services, saying, “I probably missed him a little bit. I knew he was going to be good, I didn’t know he was going to be this good. I knew he could dominate, but not like he’s done.”