Zion Williamson #1 of the New Orleans Pelicans on February 25, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Credit :

Jonathan Bachman/Getty

• A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles accuses NBA star Zion Williamson of rape and years of abuse
• Williamson allegedly threatened to have an ex-girlfriend and her parents killed, according to court documents
• The complaint also alleges that the Pelicans power forward used cocaine and alcohol

NBA star Zion Williamson has been accused of raping, kidnapping and terrorizing his ex-girlfriend, according to a complaint reviewed by PEOPLE.

A lawsuit filed by a Jane Doe in Los Angeles County on Thursday, May 29, accuses the New Orleans Pelicans power forward, who was selected first overall in the 2019 draft, of rape and assault over their years-long relationship that allegedly began in 2018 when Williamson was playing at Duke University.

Williamson has denied all allegations. In a statement to PEOPLE, his lawyer, Michael A. Balascio, said, “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and we unequivocally deny them. The allegations contained in the complaint are categorically false and reckless.”

“This case shows a disturbing pattern of coercive control, threats, and domination, including stalking, strangulation and threats with a loaded firearm,” says Doe’s attorney, Rachel Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm. “Mr. Williamson used his wealth and fame to isolate, silence and control my client, who only after many months of medical treatment and counseling is able to come forward and describe what she endured.”

“The published response by Mr. Williamson’s attorney contains a number of misrepresentations, but this is not the time to conduct that debate,” says co-counsel Sam E. Taylor, also with The Lanier Law Firm. “We have every intent to take this matter to trial, openly hold Mr. Williamson accountable and send a message that no one is above the law… Each of these claims is supported by witnesses and corroborating evidence, but this filing still requires extraordinary courage on her part.”

According to the filing, the woman alleges that Williamson, 24, violently assaulted her on Sept. 23, 2020, at a home he was renting in Beverly Hills, Calif. The complaint claims the athlete called her derogatory names and refused to let her sleep “without having sex with him.”

When the woman apparently said no to Williamson, he allegedly “pinned” her on the bed “with her hands behind her back” and raped her. According to the documents, Williamson then allegedly took the woman’s phone and “threw it across the room” before he “choked” and “yelled at her for ‘talking too much.’ “

The victim claims she didn’t get her phone back for “a period of time.”

Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans on March 19, 2025. Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty

Per the complaint, a second rape allegedly occurred weeks later on Oct. 10, 2020 after the woman told the basketball player she wanted to visit friends in San Diego. In response, Williamson allegedly “picked her up, threw her down to the ground, and pinned her shoulders down so she could not move,” before he “violently raped” the woman “in multiple ways.”

Williamson then allegedly “kept” the woman’s laptop and phone “for a period of time” so that she “could not contact anyone to secure a ride elsewhere, report the assault, or seek medical care,” per the filing.

The complaint states the two assaults “were not isolated” and claims that Pelicans star “continued to abuse, rape, assault and batter” her in multiple states — including “strangling Plaintiff with such force that she reasonably feared for her life and eventually lost consciousness” — until the conclusion of their relationship in 2023.

Williamson, listed at 284 pounds on his NBA profile, is accused of “forcefully pressing his hands over” the woman’s nose and mouth “in a manner that prevented Plaintiff from breathing and caused her to reasonably fear for her life multiple times.” In the complaint, the victim also claims he “violently” kicked her with “great force” on multiple occasions.

The woman claims in the complaint that Williamson threatened the lives of her and her family members on multiple occasions, including threatening “to have his paid security guard shoot Plaintiff in the head while the security guard was present and carrying a loaded firearm” and “threatening to have his paid security guard kill Plaintiff’s parents, after informing Plaintiff that he knows their home address multiple times.”

She is also claiming that Williamson “was either drunk or on cocaine” when “many of the wrongful acts were committed.”

Per the complaint, a 2022 incident in Louisiana apparently resulted in the woman’s head being struck “with such force that she lost consciousness” after Williamson allegedly slammed a car door shut so “violently” that it “caused the door to strike Plaintiff’s head” in an attempt to “intentionally” intentionally imprison her. Also in 2022, the woman claims Williamson pointed “a loaded firearm at Plaintiff’s head causing her to reasonably fear for her life.”

Zion Williamson playing for the Pelicans on March 2, 2025. Jamie Sabau/NBAE via Getty

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When she threatened to break up with Williamson, he allegedly threatened to “distribute nude videos and images of her.”

As a result of the alleged abuse, lawyers for Williamson’s accuser say she has “suffered severe emotional distress, anxiety, depression, humiliation, loss of sleep, and other physical and emotional injuries.” The complaint also says she has “incurred expenses for medical and psychological treatment, therapy, and counseling.”

According to Williamson’s lawyer, the basketball player “and the plaintiff never dated, but did maintain a consensual, casual relationship that began more than six years ago, when he was 18 years old. That relationship ended years ago.”

Balascio said that after the woman started demanding money, Williamson “reported the plaintiff’s extortion attempts to law enforcement,” and that he intends “to file counterclaims and seek significant damages for this defamatory lawsuit.”

PEOPLE has reached out to the Pelicans and the NBA, but did not immediately hear back.