NIL: What “Name, Image and Likeness” means and how it is impacting European hoops
Lacking chances to play, NIL money sending more Europeans to college - and more bigger names as well. A deep dive into Name, Image and Likeness and its impact on European basketball.
Name, Image and Likeness - or NIL - has changed the entire ecosphere of NCAA sports and how the athletes interact within the space surrounding the sport they play. NIL offers them a chance to make money - for more and more athletes, pretty good money - on what can be considered their own brand or brand-awareness. The NIL money is having an impact on where athletes are going as well. And the European basketball landscape is feeling that as more and more high level players are leaving Europe to attend college in the United States and take advantage of NIL money which is more than what many young players can earn in Europe. Here is a deep dive into NIL and how it is impacting European basketball.
Hundreds of international players every year flock to college basketball in the United States. Youngsters from throughout the globe are looking for chances to play during an important development time.
And now there is an added incentive to play for colleges - making money.
FIBA publishes an annual International Basketball Migration Report, and findings from the Switzerland-based International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) showed that 781 international male players played for Division I schools in 2022-23. A total of 324 Europeans decided to go the college route - a number which has increased drastically from 182 in 2016-17 and rose from 309 in 2021-22.
A major reason for the migration is less opportunity to develop in their own country. According to the report, no league in the world averaged more than 10 minutes per game for national U21 players. And the world wide average percentage of national U21 players decreased from 17% in 2022 to just 15.8% in 2023.
Germany came in at just 14.4% in 2023, down from 15.4% a year before and from 15.5% in 2021. Those U21 national players averaged just 4.2 minutes per game in 2023, down from 5.7 minutes in 2022.
The lure of 351 Division 1 college basketball programs which allow young players to get to know the United States, feel the hype of playing college basketball and often being seen as stars in their schools, get into a regular weightlifting program, take themselves out of the comfort zone and actually get playing time is too much to pass up.
The CIES does not break down how many players from the specific countries have taken the jump to the United States, but more and more are going - also players who have played for their countries’ youth national teams in recent years.
One factor that will lure even more Europeans - and already is - is Name, Image and Likeness, more commonly known as NIL.
If you follow college sports in the United States at all, you probably have heard of NIL. But what might not be known is just how powerful an instrument this new phenomenon has become.
Let’s take a look at how NIL came about; issues that have surfaced since it has metamorphasize into what it has become; and what impact it is already having and will continue to have on European basketball.
Name, Image and Likeness has its roots back to a former college basketball superstar named Ed O’Bannon. Back in the early 1990s, the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) was re-living a moment of being a powerhouse again. In 1995, O’Bannon and his younger brother Charles O’Bannon along with Tyus Edney and George Zidek helped the Bruins win the NCAA title - UCLA’s 11th and first since 1975.
Ed O’Bannon was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four after picking up 30 points and 17 rebounds in the national championship game. Later in 1995, he was drafted with the ninth overall pick in the NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. He would go on to play 128 NBA games over two seasons with the Nets and Dallas Mavericks. O’Bannon would then play across Europe in Italy, Spain, Greece and Poland besides also one season in Argentina before retiring in 2004.
Fast forward four years and we get to O’Bannon’s part in the NIL ordeal. In 2008, he had been told by a friend that his son had a new video game and that O’Bannon was in the game.
The game was NCAA Basketball 09 from Electronic Arts (EA) Sports, and sure enough O’Bannon recognized himself in the game - a tall, bald, lanky left-handed power forward with same skin tone and his No. 31.
In July 2009, O’Bannon decided to file a lawsuit against the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company, the latter being the body that licensed the rights for the game. O’Bannon was the lead plaintiff of a class action suit alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act and also actions against his right of publicity, which are rights of an individual to control the commercial use of their identity, such as name, image and likeness.
O’Bannon was joined in the lawsuit by 19 other former college athletes including former NBA superstars Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson.
A US court in California ruled in favor of O’Bannon and the plaintiffs on August 8, 2014. The NCAA appealed the case to the US Supreme Court, but the highest court in the country denied the appeal on October 3, 2016, and the NCAA was ordered to pay the plaintiffs 42.2 million dollars in fees and costs.
The sports community argued for decades that student-athletes should get paid. The NCAA had forever been dragging its feet, arguing that they were being compensated by getting a free education. The NCAA said once athletes would get paid then they would no longer be amateurs - one of the fundamental concepts of the NCAA - and instead become employees.
All this despite the fact that the NCAA was raking in massive money from mainly men’s college football and men’s and women’s basketball. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament - more affectionately known as March Madness - brought in billions of dollars in advertising on its own.
The plight of student athletes also gained traction in 2015 when the popular comedian and political commentator John Oliver discussed the issue on an episode of Last Week Tonight.
With the O’Bannon ruling as a basis, state legislatures started putting pressure on the NCAA. In 2019, California passed a law saying student athletes couldn't be forced to sign away their rights to profit from their name, image and likeness.
That law was signed into effect by California Governor Gavin Newsom during an episode of LeBron James’ HBO show “The Shop”. O’Bannon was also on the show along with James’ business partner Maverick Carter, agent Rich Paul, former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, and former UConn and current WNBA player Diana Taurasi.
James admitted during the show that he skipped college because he couldn’t get paid and he needed to help his mother financially.
Florida followed California’s lead and approved a similar law that would go into effect on July 1, 2021.
The NCAA was left no choice and caved in. On June 30, 2021, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors put in place interim NIL rules. This meant that student athletes could profit from their marketable profiles for the first time.
But what that meant exactly in the practice was still unclear.
About a month after NIL was allowed, collectives started being formed. These collectives are organizations made up of college boosters - mainly alumni of a specific college who funnel money to the collective to be used to attract and retain talent for the school’s sports teams.
These are essentially the money providers as the collectives are also responsible for brokering NIL deals for the athletes. Almost every university and college has a collective responsible for NIL contracts. And it’s important to note that these collectives are not directly affiliated with the university.
Some collectives have more money than other collectives, meaning some colleges have more NIL money available to bring in players. And collectives work differently in terms of spreading out the money. Some give the most money to the best players and other spread it throughout the roster.
Another landmark change that would have have major implications on the importance of NIL came in April 2021 - just before NIL was approved. The NCAA allowed student-athletes to transfer from one college or university to another and compete immediately the following season. Prior to that, student-athletes were forced to sit out one year.
Now players who want to switch schools for whatever reason - not enough playing time, not getting along with coach, wanting to play at a higher or lower level of competition - could do so and not miss a year of playing.
The NCAA, however, limited it to a one-time penalty free exception, and players transferring a second time would then have to sit out the following season.
Anything the NCAA puts its hands on seems to have problems, and this one-time exception transfer was no different as it is facing massive challenges. As of mid-January, 10 U.S. states, Washington DC as well the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the NCAA as joint plaintiffs charging that prohibiting student-athletes from transferring more than once violates antitrust law - specifically the same Sherman Act that O’Bannon cited in his NIL suit.
The plaintiffs are urging that college athletes’ current and future earning potentials are negatively impacted by the rule. The player’s NIL value diminishes while sidelined and his future earning potential is reduced because he cannot showcase his talents while sitting out.
The suit also alleges that the NCAA’s policy decreases fan interest in a team’s season by making popular players ineligible and thereby decreasing a team’s competitiveness on game days.
With players able to go where they want - even with the one-time transfer exemption - a Wild West atmosphere has arisen. Collectives are busy putting together NIL deals to attract soon-to-be high school graduates to their colleges while at the same time trying to lure players from other colleges looking to transfer.
Besides playing time or the other aforementioned reasons to transfer, another reason some players are moving is simply they can get more money from another collective at another college. High school players were even asking out of signed their National Letter of Intent - a binding contract between a student-athlete and a college wherein the student-athlete agrees to attend that institution, which then in return agrees to provide financial aid for that year.
The money is not just coming from collectives. In October 2022, Nike signed endorsement contracts with five basketball stars including LeBron James’ son Bronny James and women’s basketball super talent Caitlin Clark.
Those deals came in year two of the new NIL era. Just how much money was made in the first year?
The NIL platform Opendorse estimates that 917 million dollars was spent on NIL deals from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. The Opendorse platform said average annual compensation for an athlete in NCAA Division I was $3,711.
NCAA is not taking all these shots without at least trying to provide some governance. One of the collegiate ruling body’s biggest fights is against inducements.
While some may argue NIL deals are just collectives functioning in the free market. Some NIL deals however could be considered inducements, and those are banned by the NCAA.
An inducement is an incentive offered only to some athletes to sway their decision to choose a specific college. The NCAA’s Division 1 Manual lists the following as inducements: loans, free or reduced cost services or housing, gifts of clothing or equipment, employment arrangements, loans and gifts to family members, and in some cases, uses of equipment or academic services.
Florida State was recently punished by the NCAA for using an NIL offer to entice a football recruit to sign with the Seminoles, reportedly for $15,000 per month.
The university was fined and put on probation, a FSU assistant coach was suspended and the booster was ordered to disassociate himself from FSU for three years and the NIL collective was ordered a one-year disassociation.
While an overwhelmingly majority of the NIL deals are within NCAA rules, the massive amount of money involved has led to some skirting the rules.
NIL is only getting bigger. After estimating NIL deals of 917 million dollars in the first year, Opendorse announced that 1.2 billion dollars in deals were done in the second year.
Today, more than 250 collectives have been founded or are in the process of formation. Opendorse reported that collectives’ budgets increased by 11.2 percent from year two to year three. In addition, more than 300 NIL companies have been founded.
The expansion of NIL has also led to agencies specifically focused working with student athletes. The Seven1 group co-founded by former NBA All-Stars Jermaine O’Neal and Tracy McGrady worked with Drew Timme while he one of the leading players in college basketball with Gonzaga.
Timme said in an interview with Fox Sports ahead of the 2022-23 season that coming back to Gonzaga was the best financial decision for him. He said he might have made between $200,000 and $500,000 in 2022-23 as a pro but said he will make more in NIL deals. Timme had deals with brands ranging from national Dollar Shave Club - he sported a much-talked about mustache - and a local furniture store.
Other athletes are earning big money through NIL as well.
The University of Miami women’s basketball twins Haley and Hanna Cavinder turned their massive social media following - more than 5 million followers across the platforms - to more than $1 million in the first 12 months of NIL - despite not being elite level women’s basketball players.
Alabama’s Heisman Trophy winning Bryce Young had a valuation of $3.5 million this year, according to the NIL valuation site On3. Louisiana State gymnast Olivia Dunne has an estimated NIL value of $3.3 million thanks to being one of the most followed NCAA athlete on social media with over 12 million followers, including 425 million likes on her TikTok account.
Basketball has its fair share of good earners too.
Topping the list is Bronny James, who On3 estimates with a $5.8 million valuation. Hansel Enmanuel, most well-known for his talent despite having just one arm, is valued at $1.2 million while Duke freshman Jared McCain is valued at $1.0 million.
Other big names are Zach Edey from Purdue ($815,000), Shaquille O’Neal’s son Shaqir O’Neal ($812,000), Robert Dillingham ($765,000) and Sweden guard Elliot Cadeau of North Carolina ($479,000).
On3 estimates 53 men’s college basketball players valued with at least $200,000.
And even high schoolers can earn big NIL money. On3 estimates the value of LeBron James’ other son Bryce James at $1.2 million dollars while Cooper Flagg - expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft - is valued at $984,000. On3 estimates 35 high school basketball players are valued with at least $200,000.
And it is not hard to find a college with a collective. According to Fan Nation in mid-December 2023, only three of the teams ranked in the top 100 in men’s college basketball did not have a collective. A total of 74.1 percent of teams ranked between 100-181 had a collective, and 31.5 percent of schools ranked in the bottom half of the rankings (181 to 362) had a collective.
“NIL is everywhere now. At all levels of Division I and it’s creeping into the other levels. It’s also a very, very wide gap between what teams can and can’t do. Some are even surprising, some quote lower level teams have a lot more money than you might think. It’s all based on the commitment of your alumni,” said Brandon Goble, who is the CEO of Player Advocate LLC and also co-owns the VerbalCommits.com website.
“The NCAA is running around trying to put the genie back in the bottle. And it’s not working. Now you have this market where players are going to schools or considering schools based on what kind of money they can get there. And it has less to do with the true marketing value or the actual value of your image. And more about the value of you as a basketball player - which is what the NCAA doesn’t want.”
Opendorse estimated that the average men’s basketball player with a collective deal earns $37,000.
With that kind of money on the table, plus the players’ ability to move from place to place, things have become very difficult for college coaches. Legendary UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma spoke out in mid-January.
“The average coach, who’s not where I am, you can’t do your job any more. And people are gonna say, you have to change with the times. How does changing with the times help have better relationships with your players when it’s all transactional now. What kind of relationship can you have with somebody who is telling you I might be here one, maybe two years, maybe three, maybe four. Or I might be at four schools in four years,” he said.
“It has nothing to do with the money. Forget the money part. This is about the possibility that you can just walk out any time you want. How do you coach in an environment where the players feel like they owe you nothing. And you owe them everything. What kind of relationship can you have?”
That average 37,000 dollar figure does need a qualifier - and one that is a major issue for international basketball players in colleges.
Nearly all of the foreign-born players are in the United States on F1 visas, more commonly known as student visas. And the international players are not allowed to earn NIL money for “active” work.
So, players from Europe and elsewhere cannot sign autographs, attend promotional events, generate content, and post sponsorships on their social media.
If anything is produced with the international player’s likeness - an NFT or a tumbler or t-shirt for example - the player can earn NIL money passively as long as they do not promote or market it. As soon as the athlete asks friends or family to buy the merchandise, it then goes from passive income to active. And that could have a negative impact on their visa status.
One loophole that has been used to circumvent the immigration restrictions is having athletes complete the NIL deal obligations while in their home countries during holidays or outside the US during trips with their teams - for example pre-season or early season tournaments in the Bahamas.
The startup company Influxer launched late in 2021 to connect athletes with companies and become a full-service NIL company with merchandising and consulting.
In August 2022, Kentucky basketball star Oscar Tshiebwe, who hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo, worked with Influxer and reportedly made $500,000 by filming advertisements and signing autographs during a pre-season trip to the Bahamas.
Influxer also had NIL sessions at tournaments in the Bahamas in November 2022 and ultimately worked with about three dozen international players. They created photos, videos, and introductory podcasts that could be used for potential NIL deals.
The internationals came from Canada, a number of African countries, Australia, Netherlands, Spain as well as Germany. Both Simas Lukosius, who came up in the Telekom Baskets Bonn system and is now playing at the University of Cincinnati after previously playing with Butler University; and German women’s senior national team player Lina Sontag, who is playing with UCLA; worked with Influxer’s international department.
In 2022, Mustapha Amzil, a Finnish forward playing at Dayton, announced on social media that when he plays for the national team of his native Finland this summer he will be “open to any business and sponsorship deals”.
All stakeholders know the risk that international players are facing and college athletics leaders, NIL service providers, athlete advocacy groups and politicians are all urgently looking for clarification from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, who have jurisdiction over international visas.
The USCIS made a statement in December 2023 to address “the nonimmigrant student classifications, including USCIS’ role in the adjudication of applications for employment authorization.” But no mention of NIL guidance was included.
Not only do schools want guidance, but international students are vulnerable, the NIL playing field is uneven and foreign athletes are being denied the full student-athlete experience.
Regardless of the touchy nature of NIL deals, the good money is another strong reason for international players to choose college basketball - hundreds of thousands of NIL dollars are more than almost all young Europeans can earn in Europe.
“A pretty big pool of European players between 17 and 20 years old who are not regarded as pure NBA prospects or even Euroleague prospects will have a very big motive to be part of the NIL program,” Nikos Varlas, Director of recruitment for Octagon Europe, told Taking The Charge.
“The money that NIL can offer them and their families is something that will push them to go to the US and not stay in European clubs. This issue will be even bigger in countries that don’t have very good facilities or very high standard of living. In these countries, I believe the damage will be even bigger. Some families see their kids as a survival tool in term of societal lives.”
Varlas continued: “At the end of the day, if a kid can combine a scholarship for his academic career with basketball, playing in the NCAA, and at the same time the kid and the family gain some important money from NIL, then Europe will be in a tough position.”
More bigger names are leaving Europe to attend colleges. Spanish big man Aday Mara was expected to play around 20 minutes this season with Casademont Zaragoza in the ACB, but he decided to play college basketball with UCLA.
Slovenian guard Jan Vide also picked UCLA just months after he helped Real Madrid win the Adidas Next Generation Tournament title in May 2023. Berke Buyuktuncel also went to UCLA despite having already played three seasons with the pro team at Tofas Bursa.
UCLA also brought in former Partizan Belgrade talent Lazar Stefanovic, who had played with the University of Utah the previous two seasons; and highly regarded France 2005-born talent Ilane Fibleuil.
Two of Zalgiris Kaunas’ top talents Paulius Murauskas and Motiejunas Krivas are both playing at the University of Arizona. Former Real Madrid star talent Henri Veesaar, who has already played for Finland’s senior national team, is also at Arizona, as is former Joventut Badalona guard Conrad Martinez.
Zvonimir Ivisic of Croatia is an intriguing case as the Misko Raznatovic client left Montenegro pro club SC Derby Podgorica, where he was playing in the Adriatic League against EuroLeague teams such as Partizan Belgrade and Crvena Zvezda Belgrade and moved to the United States and plays for the University of Kentucky.
Germany has also seen some bigger names leave the country for the United States.
Gone are former FC Bayern Munich talents Benny Schröder (George Washington), Michael Rataj (Oregon State) and Sebastian Hartmann (Eastern Washington). ALBA Berlin have lost Nils Machowski (Central Florida), Rikus Schulte (Davidson), Christoph Tilly (Santa Clara), Dwayne Koroma (UT Arlington) and Tjark Lademacher (St. Mary’s in Canada).
“It’s a very interesting time now. For us it hasn’t started yet to make a bigger impact. For countries like Spain, who are losing their biggest talents now to the States, which was impossible a couple years ago, it already has started. But it’s not far out and it will start here too,” said Alan Ibrahimagic, who has worked with the German Basketball Federation since 2013 and is currently the German U18 national team coach.
“In Germany the transition from youth to senior basketball is tough because it’s not very well organized. It’s tough when you finish with your NBBL career at 19 and you’re not ready to compete at the highest level senior leagues, then you get lost a little bit. It gets tough to come back and get a chance at a serious level. So going over there is always an option. Some of the bigger clubs are trying to do a better job with the farm team. But it’s still a huge gap between the (third division) ProB and the BBL. That is one structural problem from our side that makes it more attractive to go to college - and now with the NIL money even more.”
Former NBA scout and director of Basketball Without Borders Europe Marin Sedlacek is quite concerned.
“Money talks all around Europe and it always starts with youth categories and that can be very dangerous in the development of players over the long term,” he said.
“Federations should take a look at the players with the most potential and try to protect them - with laws, contracts or something in coordination with FIBA. Because if a big number of potential will leave Europe, we will have a big problem.”
He continued: “I am a little scared that clubs will give up on their youth programs after 16. Without that, they will not have players developed, we will not have national teams, especially 16 and 18s.”
Sedlacek also expressed his concern about the players’ development in the United States.
“High school and college is different than in Europe. Will we have clones of Americans, or bad copy-and-paste of American players who are not the best. It’s the first small step but I am worried that we will lose the European identity in the near future.”
Not everyone is as much a doomsayer as Sedlacek.
Brandon Goble, the Player Advocate CEO, says NIL impact on youth development in Europe is “only a positive”.
“I spend a ton of time in Europe, watching European basketball and scouting and help bring over European athletes to play college. I see a lot of kids and so many of them just kind of disappear. Because at the end of the day there is only a limited number of opportunities (in Europe). There are only a certain number of teams. Once you get to a certain age, you either make it or you don’t.”
College basketball provides many more opportunities, Goble said, especially the option of moving down levels.
He cited former Netherlands star 2001-born talent Tristan Enaruna. After heading to the United States in 2018 at age 16 to play high school basketball in Utah, Enaruna joined University of Kansas in 2019. After two subpar seasons (2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds as a freshman and 3.0 points and 1.7 rebounds as a sophomore), he moved to Iowa State University in 2021 and picked up 4.3 points and 2.9 rebounds with a very minor role by the end of the season.
The 2.03m forward transferred again in 2022 and ended up going to Cleveland State University with new head coach Daniyal Robinson, who was an assistant coach at Iowa State. After three seasons in the Big 12 Conference, Enaruna shined in the smaller Horizon League, averaging 15.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocks. This season his numbers are even better at 19.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.9 blocks.ddd
Goble said only after all that development after lower levels is Enaruna the impact player Kansas were hoping they were getting when he began there in 2019.
“When he goes pro next year he’ll have five years of college and now he’s good and ready to sign a good contract in Europe. If he had stayed in Europe and he got to that big boy club and he is not ready and he’s not good enough, that’s it. They are moving on to the next guy. A lot of players disappear. Their careers are over.”
Enaruna is exactly the cautionary tale Ibrahimagic imagines when he says one of his biggest concerns for young Germans heading to college in the United States is fit.
“Everything depends on the choice of school. There are a lot of schools and not all of them are good. And also not all of them are the right fit. So where you go is a decisive aspect. And also how you adapt. They give you something but they also expect something from you. You have to perform, you have to be what they want you to be. If you’re not, it can be more cruel than here where you are home and still people care about you. Not everywhere but I would say more than they do there. That would be one of the disadvantages: where you just have a role and don’t get better,” Ibrahimagic said.
The DBB coach did say that college basketball can be an advantage though.
“As far as adjustment to senior basketball, college basketball is closer to senior basketball. But it’s still a youth league. If you are here in a pro team you can get experience playing with the pro guys. It helps a lot and makes you better. I think we have more practice time and more opportunity to work on our basketball skills,” he said.
Overall, Ibrahimagic believes Germany will feel the impact of NIL.
“I think the NIL situation will affect us more than we are aware of, than we think or expect. I don’t know how much we will fight to get the kids better, to keep them here, to provide them more opportunities, to give them better chances to get better - in basketball but also in school. So they feel good and comfortable where they are and decide to stay here and use all the advantages that we have as a basketball country or basketball continent, if we are talking about Europe.”
This is no longer just some Europeans deciding for colleges because of a lack of playing time in European. NIL money is completely changing the game. And once things are better regulated for international players, there could be even more Europeans leaving for US colleges.
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