Per Chris Balas - Kansas Rumored to Have Offered 2 Year $4M NIL Deal to Hunter Dickinson
Balas posted the rumor to the ON3 message board so no story link provided.
If true, that's certainly a large sum of money offered. It was further commented that it would be unlikely for Michigan to compete with it.
Hunter is apparently still visiting Kentucky, so who knows what they offer there.
Interesting times.
I have no doubt that Kansas is going to lob a fat stack at him. I just don't trust Chris Balas based on his previous reporting and my perceived value of Hunter compared to the rest of cbb.
Like that one kid from Miami (Nigel Pack) was rumored to get 800k go there and he was a damn good player before he transferred. Id wager Hunter would be in the similar ballpark
I'm just saying that none of us really have any credible insight I to what players are getting via NIL. It's an incredibly murky "marketplace" that is severely lacking in transparency.
Making any claims about what players definitely are or aren't making is about as accurate as forecasting who'll win the Heisman and national championship in the year 2052.
My institution has a few modest NIL programs. While I am no longer on the athletic committee, my understanding is that the reported figures are normally the best-case scenarios. For example, one of our players reportedly signed a NIL deal where the payments to him would depend on the number of social followers, appearances around important events (assuming the team makes it to those events), etc. The deal does not and cannot include any performance incentive.
Are you referring to Michigan or another school?
Yes, to celebrate it as capitalism is naive as hell, when it's not supposed to be payment--that issue neatly set aside in the excitement--and when most players make zero. It's profoundly unequal, obviously, to the point of absurdity, lacking in transparency or accountability, but a certain kind of fan only seems to want his school to bring lots of money to bear, puffs himself up on the idea that his school is somehow going to whip up on everyone else and feels wounded, as with everything, at the very possibility that it doesn't. When Kansas, "blue blood," reputed to be crooked AF for years, creams everybody. . . Why people like or accept this is a little beyond me. This time, Michigan will be the subject of such ritual humiliation as HD moves on, and some particularly low IQ types will later take all of this as proof that Juwan isn't as strong a coach as Bill Self. None of it stands up to rigorous scrutiny, but it does make everyone more and more comfortable with the idea of players as commodities. . . which in turn makes it easier to scream at them or hate on 'em when they wound us--deeply, deeply, as we've got little else connecting us to anything and this, at this stage of decay, is the American social arena--by not winning each and every game. The idea that kids play the game they love for their school. . . pretty tortured at this stage. It's all kinda creepy.
Pressure's definitely gonna be on Hunter, though; we can look forward to the crap he's going to catch when (if) he fails to live up to expectations; might be hellacious. I'll bet he's doing a little sweating as we speak.
April 20th, 2023 at 10:07 PM ^
I don't disagree with a lot of what you say but
"It's profoundly unequal, obviously, to the point of absurdity, lacking in transparency or accountability"
sounds a lot like capitalism to me.
April 20th, 2023 at 10:26 PM ^
As we all know, the world was a paradise of transparency and accountability before that bastard Adam Smith came around…
If you’re going to break the No Politics rule at least try to make a thoughtful point.
April 21st, 2023 at 12:03 PM ^
Still waiting for a reach around from the invisible hand, huh?
April 20th, 2023 at 10:21 PM ^
Yes it’s indeed very creepy that these athletes finally get a real cut of the literal billions being made off their labor. How horrible.
It’s a shady Wild West right now, but as others have said, the NCAA had a chance to set up a more transparent, equitable system but chose to ride the “exploit free labor to line their pockets” gravy train until the literal Supreme Court had to tell them to cut that shit out.
He also said Harbaugh already thanked the staff and was gone to the Vikings. #neverforget
I haven't followed a lot of them, but Balas was pretty on top of the Blake Corum NIL situation that brought him back, as well as the OL deals.
Yeah, I'm sure the money is high but ever year you hear these numbers thrown out and then when they actually have to talk about the income coming in it's a fraction of it.
I'm sure Dickinson's number is north of $1M per year but $2M would mean there's a whole lotta guys making a lot more. And while Dickinson is a good college player I can't imagine he'd move the needle that much for KU compared to their usual roster.
April 21st, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
2 years?
We should at least get a decent compensatory pick if this happens
That would be a very interesting point. As part of their offer from the new school, the new school would be required to pay 25% of their offer to the school the athlete was leaving (on top of the new salary given to the athlete). Then the old school got a kick-back from losing someone due to a stupid NIL issue.
Very overrated.
2 years?
Believe 2020-21 does not count against eligibility, due to COVID.
He can technically play five years with the COVID year.
Senior season + COVID year left.
what a f'n brat.
I wish him well, but it seemed like when he was here all he did was bitch about the NIL program.
Says the guy who was not offered $4M
How is maximizing your value being a brat? Your argument is he should leave that money on the table and play for Michigan because.....
‘Cuz fans, man. Some of us think players need to be loyal to their college peers and the older guys who yell at them on Twitter and Instagram about sucking.
Maximizing his own value doesn’t make Hunter a dick. If he goes to Maryland, though, or anywhere in conference, he can eat a big one as far as rooting for him.
He’s lost out on any legacy if he leaves, no matter where he transfers, for me. He’s not a “brat” or a horrible person or wrong for what he’s doing for himself—but my loyalty is to the team. I actually thought he had a chance at making it pro, even if he went in 2nd or undrafted and proved himself.
But his portal move makes me wonder where that dawg in him went.
I think that even if it's just $2M over 2 years at age 22 that's life changing money and anyone on this board saying that they wouldn't do it is lying to their age-22 selves. These are the same people who would criticize the move if he were offered $40M or $400M
As for where that dawg in him went that's easy, I think he's been advised repeatedly, even by this fanbase, that he has next to 0 chance of sticking on an NBA roster because he lacks and likely cannot develop the athleticism to be worth investing in. If he continues to play basketball and put miles on his body it'll be for relatively low wages overseas. Look at Kofi Cockburn, i bet that guy wishes he had stayed for the NIL derby that's happening now instead of playing in the worst team in the Japan league.
For some reason the idea of Kofi Cockburn walking the streets of Tokyo made me laugh.
It would be like Hagrid visiting the hobbits in the Shire. Good luck in some of the tiny hotel bathrooms.
In hindsight, he should have left last year. May have cost himself $1M+ at the height of his earning potential
Everything you said contradicts your "wish(ing) him well."
April 20th, 2023 at 10:28 PM ^
Wouldn’t “I left Michigan and got more money” kind of, you know, support his argument that Michigan was bad at NIL?
April 21st, 2023 at 10:10 AM ^
Not necessarily. Everybody values things differently. Maybe Michigan and the people in charge of NIL deemed Hunter as not worthy of the $x.xx investment he was seeking.
Just like Harbaugh had to reset to find guys who love football AND love Michigan, Juwan needs to find guys who are here for the right reasons.
I would argue Hunter does love Michigan but also wants to leave to make money. Both can be true.
He’s about to love Kansas quite a bit
Good for Hunter, and Juwan can use NIL freed from him on someone else in the portal.
He would be crazy not to take it...as this was certainly his major point for entering the portal-and that is fine.
Hunter can choke on one.
What an insightful comment. Can't wait until you're offered a new job but turn it down because you're just so loyal to your current employer.
This is a bad look for you, Cam. You can do better than this.
Brilliant insight. Where can I subscribe to your newsletter?
Can't fault him if he's getting that kind of $$ offers. Go make your money young man.
Great landing place for HD at KU. They were missing a post up option on offense after McCormack graduated, so they get Dickinson for two years of one seeds in the NCAAs and a heck of a shot for another Natty.
oh, and the money sounds pretty niiice too!!
Very smart move on Kansas' part. Everybody knows you don't win titles with 5 star guards dictating play. You need a 7'1 guy shooting 3 of 10 from deep with 20 seconds left in the shot clock and who won't play any defense. THAT'S how you win titles
UK fan as well here. FWIW, Hunter is having a three day visit at UK. They were a fairly big leader for him prior to this news. The idea was that if Oscar kept his name on in the draft, Hunter would come. Conversely, if he comes back, Hunter is out.
Not negging Hunter but with UK's pace of play and Oscar's motor, u don't think fans would be too thrilled with him ultimately as the season goes on. Then again, Callipari may light a fire under him
April 20th, 2023 at 10:14 PM ^
Surprisingly, a lot of them are wanting HD over Oscar. Blows my mind. HD would expand the offense, but to your point wouldn’t work with Cals offense. Most of the fans turn away from Oscar during his brilliance. Only thing that delusional base says currently that I somewhat agree with, is Cal needs to go. I’m slowly getting in that boat.
April 21st, 2023 at 12:17 PM ^
My understanding is Hunter is not going to wait another month or more for Oscar to decide. Hunter wants to make a decision soon.
If he's smart he could take that money, work a normal job for about 15 years and then comfortably retire.