The New York Times filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought forward by Alabama men’s basketball walk-on Kai Spears.

The request, filed in the Northern District Court of Alabama on July 28 and reviewed by AL.com, cites multiple cases of Alabama law and court decisions to show while its naming of Spears was incorrect, the NYT believes he doesn’t have standing for a case. It’s the latest development in a story that defined the 2022-23 Crimson Tide men’s basketball season.

While celebrating a win over LSU in Tuscaloosa, multiple members of the program narrowly avoided gunfire after an argument broke out between former player Darius Miles, a friend of his and a group of individuals they encountered outside of a bar. Miles and the shooter, Michael Davis, are being held without bond in the Tuscaloosa County Jail on capital murder charges for the death of Jamea Harris.

In March The NYT’s initial, then-corrected reporting placed Spears in the car with Miller — who had received a request by Miles to bring him his gun, which was in the backseat of Miller’s car. The Spears portion was based on a detective’s report of an “unidentified passenger” and an individual who was “familiar with the case,” according to The Times.

That was changed, however, when Spears’ lawsuit on June 2 made the first public claim that it was team manager Cooper Lee in the car, not Spears— which Lee later confirmed to The Times.

In the argument put forth by Birmingham attorneys John Thompson and Matthew Winne, as well as Chad Bowman and Emmy Parsons for The NYT, they claim that Spears can’t say his public image was hurt firstly because it’s not disparaging to say someone witnessed or was the victim of a crime.

And secondly, it’s not defamatory to say Spears’ reputation was hurt by being around his teammates. Spears’ suit doesn’t deny he was among the contingent of at least four students associated with UA basketball hanging out on the Strip on Jan. 15. Most students present at the scene, Lee, Miller and eventual transfer Jaden Bradley, were cleared as suspects in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and were said to have fully cooperated with authorities.

As argued in the motion: “That The Times initially identified Spears rather than Lee as the passenger was a mistake. But under settled Alabama law it was not defamation per se.

“Spears’ claim fails for the straightforward reason that it is not highly offensive to say that he was in a car—in which he had ridden earlier that night—at the moment it was hit by crossfire.”

Regarding Spears’ claim that he was the subject of “actual malice” by The NYT, the paper’s attorneys countered that it correctly identified Spears as someone who was in Miller’s car, just at the wrong time. When it then approached UA representatives and Spears for comment, the former didn’t respond and Spears declined to answer questions.

Spears originally requested The Times to retract the story after its publishing before taking legal action. He’s requesting $75,000 in damages.

“I had multiple threats from like Twitter and Instagram, people telling me to kill myself, people telling me I’m a murderer, we’re a team full of murderers. And they’re just kind of putting this false narrative out … I mean, I did nothing wrong,” Spears told The Washington Post in June.

Davis, 20, had his request to be charged as a youthful offender denied on Saturday.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].