College basketball coach Leonard Hamilton is being sued for allegedly defrauding several players.

According to Yahoo! Sports, former Florida State University (FSU) basketball players Darin Green Jr., Josh Nickelberry, Primo Spears, Cam’Ron Fletcher, De’Ante Green, and Jalen Warley have filed a lawsuit against their former coach. The players claim Hamilton owed them $1.5 million in total through name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments. They say he made promises of payments starting in April 2023, when he held a meeting and allegedly told the players they would receive compensation of $250,000 each. The money was expected to be disbursed by March 2024, but the players claim those funds never materialized even though he continued to assure them that they would be paid.

“Every player on the 2023-24 FSU men’s basketball team roster relied on the promises that Hamilton made when they either decided to transfer to FSU or remain enrolled at FSU and play out the season,” the suit said, per the outlet. “However, as the season continued, many players, including the plaintiffs, became very frustrated by the continuous failure to perform on the myriad of promises issued by Hamilton.”

Players had sent messages to Hamilton and Will Cowen, an executive of one of Florida State’s NIL collectives who was aware of the situation, and mentioned they were needing the NIL payments for taxes, rent, and car payments. They also stated they were “tired of the lies,” reports Yahoo! Sports.

One player, Green, had directly told Cowen, “This money situation is weighing on a lot of guys and affecting guys on the court,” the outlet shares.

The alleged inaction by Hamilton prompted players to boycott a practice last season ahead of a Feb. 17 game against Duke University, leaving the coach appearing “panicked,” according to the suit. Hamilton allegedly reaffirmed during a meeting with the players that the payments would be issued by a private company the following week. The remark was supposedly enough to convince the players to return to the court for the Duke game.

However, the lawsuit claims the NIL earnings never came in.

“I’m telling you the sad truth that zero of the promises made to us came through in the past month,” Cowen texted player Spears in the last month of the regular season, per Yahoo! Sports. “Not a penny has come in.”

The outlet also reports that Hamilton never formally wrote down the NIL promises through text or other documentation.

Still, the players state in the lawsuit that they hope the action will prevent Hamilton from using the alleged “despicable” tactics on other players. There are four counts against Hamilton listed: breach of contract, promissory estoppel (the recovery of promised damages), fraudulent misrepresentation and inducement, and negligent misrepresentations.

The players are seeking to be awarded “$250,000 each in compensatory damages, unspecific punitive and exemplary damages, and interest at ‘high statutory rates,'” according to Yahoo Sports.

“It is vitally important to hold people accountable to the promises they make,” Darren Heitner, a Florida-based attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the outlet. “This is a situation where the entire roster relied on Coach Hamilton’s promise and he failed to deliver. This is about holding him accountable and hopefully this prevents this from happening again at FSU or elsewhere.”