The legal saga of New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson and his former agent, Gina Ford of Prime Sports Marketing, has been in court for seven years, and in a new court filing, Williamson argues it’s long past time for Ford and Prime to pay up.

John Wester of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson and other attorneys for Williamson this week filed a brief in a North Carolina federal district court. They urge U.S. District Judge Lindsey Freeman to deny a motion that would postpone when the defendants must pay Williamson $685,748 in attorneys’ fees, an amount determined by U.S. Magistrate Judge Loretta Biggs in March.

The litigation has lasted longer than Williamson has been in the NBA.

It began two weeks before the 2019 NBA draft, during which Williamson was selected first overall. Williamson sued Prime and Ford, who represented him in marketing deals after he declared his eligibility for the NBA draft after his freshman season at Duke University in May 2019. Williamson maintained the five-year deal he signed with Prime and Ford was void and unenforceable.

Both a federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sided with Williamson, who was still enrolled at Duke when he signed the contract. Williamson argued the contract was “draconian” since it required him to pay Prime 15% of all compensation from endorsement or branding deals, and that obligation would continue in perpetuity, even after the five years ended.

The alleged unfairness of the contract wasn’t the legal problem.

It was instead a reflection of the North Carolina Uniform Athlete Agent Act, which requires that contracts signed with college athletes contain language stating the student is aware they could forfeit their NCAA eligibility by signing—and the Williamson-Prime contract omitted that key language. Even though Williamson was undoubtedly going to the NBA and was not going to return to Duke for his sophomore year, he was still a student at the time. Therefore, the contract he signed was void under state law.

The case has also featured Ford (and Prime) counter-suing Williamson for more than $100 million, accusing him of fraud, unjust enrichment, trade secret misappropriation and other claims. She asserted that Williamson had deceived her by supposedly plotting with other CAA agents to cut ties with her. Those claims were later dismissed but prolonged the litigation in ways that required Williamson to spend more on his lawyers. The parties also separately litigated against each other in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

Williamson demanded that Ford reimburse him for $1.49 million in attorneys’ fees. He maintained Ford persisted in litigating after it should have been clear to her that she lacked a meritorious argument. Williamson also predicated the demand on nearly 3,000 billable hours incurred by his attorneys.

Judge Biggs largely agreed with Williamson that Ford should have known her counterclaims were without merit, reasoning that outlook became clear after the court held the five-year contract was void as a matter of law. The judge also pointed out that Williamson had no legal obligation to disclose his communications with CAA and that possible endorsement offers fell short of trade secret protection.

But Judge Biggs found Williamson’s demand of $1.49 million excessive. She described the hourly rates as high and posited the litigation was a relatively straightforward contract law dispute, and she calculated that $685,748 was a more appropriate figure.

Williamson says “informal collection attempts failed,” so he sought and was granted a writ of execution—a court order issued against a debtor to pay or potentially face forfeiture of assets. Ford (and Prime) then sought a stay of the writ, which is at issue before the court.

In a court filing, Ford says she and Prime face financial issues and would endure hardship in paying her and her family’s bills and expenses if she had to pay what she owes Williamson. Ford also says that she accepted a new position that prevents her from operating Prime and notes that Florida’s Homestead Exemption protects her Florida residence from potential forfeiture.

In his brief, Williamson maintains Ford’s arguments miss the mark.

He said that it is “clear” that a delay in the collection would “raise serious questions” about Ford and Prime’s “ability or willingness” to pay. It also allegedly raises “the possibility that they are concealing assets.”

The risk to Williamson, he claims, is that potential assets to pay him “will become stale” and render him unable to collect.

Further, Williamson maintains that Prime would not “face any harm from enforcement of the judgment” and emphasizes that Florida law neither shields a company’s assets from a civil judgment nor prevents Williamson from seizing Ford’s equity in the company, for which she served as president.

At some point, the legal battle between Williamson and Ford will end. But predicting that point is challenging given the litigiousness of the parties.

Meanwhile, Williamson has earned $153.9 million in NBA player contracts, and the 26-year-old, two-time All-Star is set to earn $87.1 million over the next two seasons. Over the years, he has also signed lucrative endorsement deals with Jordan Brand, Gatorade and other major brands.