From Shaq to Zion: Which past men’s college basketball legends would have earned the most money in the modern NIL era?

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(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports illustration)

In early 1993, Michigan basketball coach Steve Fisher did a double take when he walked by the newly opened NikeTown store along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

“The front window was plastered with Fab Five stuff,” Fisher told Yahoo Sports.

There were Michigan jerseys for sale bearing the jersey numbers worn by Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose. There were the black socks that the Fab Five had helped popularize. And there were the royal blue and purple Air Flight Huaraches that Nike had given to Michigan players to wear before anyone else and that at least one Fab Five member considered the quintet’s unofficial signature shoe.

At the time, Fisher viewed the storefront display as evidence that corporations were treating the Fab Five brand as a marketable commodity but that his players weren’t seeing any of the profits. Now he also sees it as proof that the members of college basketball’s most celebrated recruiting class would have made a killing in the NIL market if they played in the modern era.

“They were marketed by other people from the time they came out of high school,” Fisher said. “I can’t fathom how much they would command now, but it would be a new high, I would imagine.”

[Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem is back: Enter for a shot to win up to $50K]

For decades, the NCAA stubbornly refused to allow college athletes to become paid endorsers or to monetize their success beyond school-funded scholarships. Only in response to mounting legal and political pressure four years ago did the NCAA relent and at last loosen its name, image and likeness policies.

The rule change instantly laid bare exactly how much generations of college athletes had been underpaid and undervalued. Despite objections from the NCAA, NIL deals predictably became de facto pay-to-play devices with donors and collectives footing the bill for athletes rather than the universities themselves.

Men’s basketball players often land the most…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball/article/from-shaq-to-zion-which-past-mens-college-basketball-legends-would-have-earned-the-most-money-in-the-modern-nil-era-161334598.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-03-13 16:13:00

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