Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley Sues Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton

Six former Seminoles are filing a lawsuit against their former coach for not paying the $250K in NIL payments they were each owed.

Here is the real reason that Jalen Warley decided to leave Tallahassee, Florida for Charlottesville, Virginia before eventually making his way to Spokane, Washington. The now Gonzaga point guard and five other former Florida State Seminoles are suing Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton for over $1.5 million in unpaid NIL cash they say he promised them.

Besides Warley, the other players that are suing the legendary college basketball coach are Darin Green Jr. (no more college eligibility), Josh Nickelberry (no more college eligibility), Primo Spears (UTSA), Cam’Ron Fletcher (Xavier), and De’Ante Green (South Florida). The 2023-24 team actually held a boycott during a practice before a February 17th game against Duke last season over the payments. Hamilton assured them that the money would be in their bank accounts by next week so the players competed in the 76-67 loss to the Blue Devils.

The players are stating that Hamilton promised each of them the money in separate team meetings as well as in conversations with their families. Multiple text messages between players and Hamilton as well as with Will Cowen, an executive with one of Florida State’s NIL collectives, are being used as evidence.

Hamilton’s salary is $2.25 million in a five-year contract he signed back in 2021. The lawsuit against the coach brings four counts including breach of contract, promissory estoppel (the recovery of promised damages), fraudulent misrepresentation and inducement, and negligent misrepresentations.

It’s not announced how much NIL cash that the Zags collective has promised Warley for next season but it’s fair to say that the group will keep up their end of the bargain when the transfer joins Gonzaga for the 2025-26 season.

Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on Twitter @a_cravalho