Zion Williamson’s name came up in court once again on Thursday — with a former Adidas consultant mentioning him on a video wiretap, in which he discussed spending big bucks on the basketball phenom to lure him to Clemson.
The recording was captured by Louis Martin “Marty” Blazer, a star witness in the ongoing college corruption trial for former Adidas executive Merl Code and aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins, who are accused of arranging a pay-for-play scheme involving coaches and players.
The two of them have already been convicted of conspiracy and wire fraud and sentenced to six months in prison for conspiring to bribe the families of standout basketball recruits in an attempt to steer them toward Adidas-sponsored schools and endorsements once they go pro. Now they’re on trial for paying the coaches — specifically, assistants working at Arizona, South Carolina, Oklahoma State and USC.
Prosecutors played the recordings of Blazer in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, along with a number of other wiretaps that allegedly mention bribes being made.
The Adidas exec can be heard talking to Dawkins and Clemson assistant basketball coach Steve Smith in front of an undercover FBI agent about making potential payments to Williamson’s family in a bid to lure him away from Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina — which were recruiting him heavily, according to prosecutors.
“Duke, UNC and Kentucky will have people in place to pay whatever’s necessary,” Blazer said. “Whatever Zion Williamson’s family needed, we would be able to step in and help if it was close.”
Blazer has been a key witness for prosecutors, with hundreds of hours of recordings being made over the past three years. He said he would pay bribes to families of college athletes — which include several football players — so that they would hire him as a financial adviser after going pro.
Dawkins, 26, was working for a fledgling sports management team called Live Out Your Dreams when the meeting with Williamson — who is predicted to go first in the NBA draft — took place in Las Vegas in 2017, prosecutors said.
Code, 45, was crucial in the pay-for-play scheme and used his connections as a former Clemson point guard to try and bring players in.
The university said Thursday that it was “aware of the developments in federal court today” and launching an investigation.
“We take this matter seriously and will immediately conduct a review,” a spokesman told The Post.
Williamson’s name has now come up twice in court during the college corruption cases, with the first coming last October during testimony about Kansas University and alleged payments that the school made to recruit the basketball star.
In April, he was mentioned again by celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti — who alleged on Twitter that Nike paid for “bogus” services in 2016 or 2017 “as part of a Nike bribe to get Zion to go to Duke.” Kevin White, the Blue Devils athletic director, later said that the school was “looking into” the allegation.