Lawyers for RJ Luis Jr. ask judge to block SEC from intervening to keep him off LSU's roster

Lawyers for RJ Luis Jr., who was briefly under contract with two NBA teams in 2025 but never played in a game, are asking a Louisiana judge to block the Southeastern Conference from punishing LSU if Luis is added to the Tigers' roster.

The request was included in a petition filed Tuesday in state district court in East Baton Rouge Parish, where Judge Ronald R. Johnson in late August granted a preliminary injunction against the NCAA , which has argued that Luis is ineligible to play.

An SEC spokesman said Tuesday that the conference had no immediate comment on the new filing. The SEC already has accused LSU in a related federal case of exhibiting an “ongoing defiance of the conference’s professionalism rules” by trying to add Luis to its roster.

The SEC has a long-established rule forbidding teams from adding players with major professional experience to their rosters. In September, the conference announced updated enforcement provisions to that rule, stating that the commissioner had the power to suspend coaches, fine universities up to half of a sport’s budget and restrict a member university’s voting privileges on conference matters.

Under threat of being voted out of the SEC by fellow league members, LSU elected in early September not to add to its football roster two players who'd spent part of the offseason with NFL clubs before being recruited back to college by Tigers first-year coach Lane Kiffin.

Those players — Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris — had played for Kiffin at Mississippi. During Week 1 of the season, they were granted a preliminary injunction against the NCAA and SEC by another state judge in Baton Rouge.

That case led the SEC to file a federal case alleging that LSU, by attempting to circumvent SEC rules, was violating the league's First Amendment right to freedom of association. In other words, the SEC essentially argued it has the right to enforce rules governing competition among members who all chose to join the league.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has mocked the SEC for taking that position, calling its federal case “garbage.” She has filed briefs supporting LSU and urging dismissal of the case, in which she has since been named as a defendant.

The attorneys who filed Thursday's petition in state court in Louisiana — Elliot Abrams of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Tony Clayton of Baton Rouge — represent only Luis. They do not represent LSU, and have asked the judge to also block LSU from following any SEC directives that would bar Luis from playing.

“LSU has not rostered Mr. Luis, and the reason it has given is the Conference’s protocols,” Luis' petition states. “This court enjoined the NCAA, and everyone acting in concert or participation with it, from keeping RJ Luis Jr. off the floor at LSU this season, directly or indirectly. The Southeastern Conference’s policy is what keeps him off the floor now.”

Luis, the 2025 Big East Player of the Year with St. John's, played three seasons of college basketball with two teams before declaring for the 2025 NBA draft.

He went undrafted, but briefly was under contract with Utah and Boston. Will Wade, hired last spring to coach LSU for the second time, recruited Luis to return to college.

The NCAA balked at allowing Luis to regain his eligibility because he'd elected to leave college for the NBA and never followed NCAA protocols for retaining eligibility by withdrawing from the NBA draft.

AP Sports Writer Aaron Bread in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here , visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full men’s basketball coverage here