‘I can sleep now.’ Tyon Grant-Foster cleared to compete for Gonzaga after judge rules in player’s favor

Wearing a powder blue dress shirt, navy tie and white heart-shaped earrings, Tyon Grant-Foster leaned forward and placed two palms over his forehead. Moments later, he stood up to wipe tears from his left eye. On the way out of the courtroom, he walked by Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few, who offered a congratulatory pat on the back.

Months of stress, anguish and uncertainty culminated with a wave of relief for the Gonzaga transfer player Monday inside a Spokane County courtroom.

At the end of a 2½-hour preliminary injunction, Spokane County Judge Marla Polin ruled in Grant-Foster’s favor, allowing the 25-year-old to compete for Gonzaga in 2025-26. The ruling ended an emotional five-month journey for Grant-Foster, who applied for an eligibility waiver in early June shortly after transferring to Gonzaga from Grand Canyon University.

“I can sleep. I can go to sleep now,” Grant-Foster said at the postgame podium after Gonzaga’s 111-53 victory over Western Oregon. “I jump higher. (Gonzaga teammate Adam Miller) told me that.”

Exactly 38 minutes after the hearing and 13 minutes before Gonzaga tipped off against Division II Western Oregon in a preseason exhibition, Grant-Foster made a grand entrance, jogging through a tunnel at McCarthey Athletic Center wearing his No. 7 jersey and white Zag shorts.

The forward received a huge applause from fans, pointed toward the ceiling and pumped his arms into the air as he joined teammates in the layup line. Gonzaga students sitting in the Kennel Club responded with chants of “Tyon! Tyon! Tyon!”

“He’s just a remarkable young man that’s just resilient. He just keeps coming,” said Spokane civil rights attorney Carl Oreskovich, who argued on Grant-Foster’s behalf Monday along with North Carolina attorney Elliot Abrams. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster for him. The times it looked like there’d be obstacles, he was tearful. Today you could see he was tearful again, but tears of happiness.”

The NCAA denied Grant-Foster’s initial waiver request and multiple attempts to appeal, prompting the forward to file a lawsuit against the sport’s regulatory body on Oct. 14.

A preliminary injunction hearing was initially scheduled for Thursday, but the NCAA filed a notice of removal motion approximately 24 hours earlier in an attempt to move Grant-Foster’s case to a federal court. The notice of removal delayed Thursday’s injunction, but it was ultimately unsuccessful, allowing Grant-Foster’s attorneys to reschedule the hearing for 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

Grant-Foster arrived at the courtroom roughly 30 minutes before the hearing, accompanied by Gonzaga coach Mark Few and teammates Jalen Warley, Steele Venters and Braeden Smith. Around 30 people attended, including multiple dressed in Gonzaga shirts and sweaters.

“This is Tyon Grant-Foster,” Oreskovich opened. “This is a man whose future is at stake here.”

A hearing that was scheduled to only last an hour instead finished just south of three. Oreskovich and Abrams made opening arguments, citing antitrust laws they felt should protect Grant-Foster after suffering multiple life-threatening heart scares during his time at DePaul University. They also introduced the “Pavia rule” – a blanket waiver named after Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia that gives NCAA athletes who previously competed in junior college an additional year of eligibility.

Oreskovich also claimed the potential damage sustained by the NCAA if Grant-Foster was cleared would be “absolutely nominal” in comparison to the irreparable immediate and harm the player would undergo if he was denied another year of eligibility.

The NCAA’s defense claimed both of Grant-Foster’s years at Indian Hills Community College, in 2018-19 and 2019-20, counted toward his four-year eligibility clock, in addition to the two he played at Grand Canyon, where the forward led the Antelopes to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and earned Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors in 2023-24.

Matthew Ralph, who was representing the NCAA, argued that steadfast eligibility rules were important to maintaining the integrity of competition across all levels of sport.

“For example, the WNBA would not be the same if men were allowed to play,” Ralph said. “The Paralympics would not be the same if able-bodied people were allowed to compete. … Those eligibility rules are necessary to create that kind of product and the NCAA is no different.”

The defense also argued that Grant-Foster could’ve filed his lawsuit sooner, rather than waiting “until the eve of the season.” The lawsuit was actually filed three days before the NCAA notified Gonzaga it denied Grant-Foster’s eligibility waiver, giving him just one more avenue to get back onto the court.

After Ralph finished his argument, Polin issued a 10-minute break before reconvening. Oreskovich, Abrams and Ralph were each given opportunities to make additional statements before Polin offered a ruling shortly after 5 p.m.

The judge also granted an injunction to Grant-Foster that would prohibit the NCAA from invoking a restitution rule if the governing body decides to challenge Monday’s ruling and subsequently win an appeal. The restitution rule is a punitive measure allowing the NCAA to strike any potential awards or wins obtained by Grant-Foster and Gonzaga throughout the basketball season.

If an appeal was filed, it likely wouldn’t be reviewed by an appellate court for approximately a year, long after Gonzaga’s 2025-26 campaign ends in February or March.

“We’re just excited for Tyon,” Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford told The Spokesman-Review before Monday’s game tipped off. “We believe this is the right verdict and he’s been through so much. Disappointed it wasn’t granted through the waiver process, we believe it should’ve been. So we’ll just move forward from here.”

Immediately after the verdict came, Grant-Foster rode back in a car to the Kennel with Few, making a brief phone call to his mother back home in Kansas City to relay the news.

“There was a lot of hallelujah, we were just overjoyed, excited,” Few said. “Then it was more just hoping we don’t hit too much traffic and get here on time and all that.”

Oreskovich and Abrams weren’t far behind the vehicle transporting Grant-Foster and Few. The player’s legal team also made it to the Kennel, occupying seats a handful of rows behind Gonzaga’s bench. Grant-Foster checked into the game at the 9-minute, 30-second mark of the first half, drawing more ovations when he trotted to the scorers table, and scored four points in nine minutes against Western Oregon.

“I’m sure you all saw the relief on Tyon’s face,” Abrams said. “This young man has been waiting for the opportunity since the moment he started playing basketball as a young kid. This is opportunity to showcase his talent on the national stage.

“The law supported giving him that opportunity and we’re so grateful the court carefully analyzed this issues and ruled in our favor. He will be on the court I think pretty shortly.”