Adidas executive allegedly paid family of Zion Williamson and other athletes through laundering money

The Adidas pay scandal is still on-going and new documents released today allege that former Adidas rep, Chris Rivers, paid the family of former Duke star Zion Williamson, as well as other athletes, by laundering money from Adidas through another company that he controlled, per Jason Riley of WDRB.

An example that Riley gave was that Rivers allegedly made payments to an Ashley Furniture credit account that was held by Zion’s step-dad. The attorney of Brian Bowen, former Louisville commit, claims that Rivers used his company “In Your Eye Sports” to transfer thousands of dollars to families of athletes, as well as Williamson’s when he was a high school prospect.

Two weeks ago, documents were also released that stated that Rivers “may have transferred $3,000 per month to the Williamson family for an unspecified period of time.” Adidas said that they did not know of the specific purpose of alleged payments.

Because the family of Williamson allegedly took payments in some form, it does not appear that Duke had any involvement in the matter of the Williamson family and alleged payments. Duke is also a Nike school, and this is an Adidas matter.

However, if it does become proven that the family of Zion Williamson took payments of some form, Zion would have been an ineligible player for the Blue Devils during the 2018-19 season.

There is more to come on the Adidas-Brian Bowen Jr. lawsuit, though we probably should not hold our breath on Duke being punished for it, at least while Coach K is still there.