Over the past year, North Carolina big man Armando Bacot has emerged as the poster child for college basketball players spurning the professional ranks in favor of staying in school to capitalize on their name, image and likeness potential while building a college legacy. His NIL portfolio reportedly exceeds $500,000, which is competitive to an NBA two-way contract of $508,891 or roughly half of the NBA’s rookie minimum salary.
But his daily life on campus as a Tar Heel legend is arguably more glamorous than life on an NBA two-way contract, which is where he may have been headed if he’d gone to the NBA Draft either of the past two years.
While Bacot has clearly capitalized on the newfound earnings potential afforded to big-name college stars in recent years, he did so without ever entering the transfer portal or testing the NBA Draft waters, which could have started a high-dollar bidding war.
With the May 11 deadline to enter the transfer portal passed and the May 31 deadline for players to withdraw from the NBA Draft and retain their college eligibility approaching, a handful of prospects have big decisions to make and big money at stake. Dozens will receive feedback from this week’s NBA Draft Combine over their professional outlook and use that information to decide whether to remain in the draft or return to college.
As they navigate that process, they will do so with a negotiating position that even Bacot, the face of NIL in men’s basketball, never fully pursued. On the one hand, there are professional options in the United States and abroad. Then, there are collegiate collectives that would love to have proven producers representing their schools. That dynamic is only heightened for players such as Julian Phillips of Tennessee and Arthur Kaluma of Creighton who have taken the additional step of entering the transfer portal while also negotiating the pre-draft process.
Oscar Tshiebwe and…..
