I had no idea that endorsement deals could be so big for players who have not yet proved themselves.
If there were five Darius Bazley’s, would they all get the same sort of offer? I think Bazley’s situation is unique because of all of the PR that you can put around it. New Balance wants to make a splash and now NB is in the narrative.
It’s $1 million guaranteed. The article didn’t specifically state how long the contract is. It could be a five year contract. We just don’t know at the moment.
Another thing to think about, Rich Paul is Bazley’s agent. Paul is also Lebron and Anthony Davis’ agent. He has a lot of pull and my guess is that Bazley will be the first of several of his clients that will sign with New Balance. The ol’ “you sign this guy, I’ll get you a couple of stars,” tactic.
That’s just it - I don’t think it will be the Bazley’s that take advantage of it, but more the top 10 prospects. I think it will be interesting to see how the big brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma (!?) attempt to woo these kids. If the corruption trial has shown us anything, it’s that there is A LOT of money out there. Now these companies can legally throw money at these kids and the kids will have a viable alternative to college.
All in all, I don’t think it will impact the majority of college basketball, but if several top prospects start to look at an alternative every year, there may be a small ripple as the blue chips start to look at lower level prospects and less one and dones.
I feel bad for Bazley that he has to wear New Balances.
6 Likes
On the court he will probably get teased, but off the court, wearing grey 993’s, he is going to be getting a lot of respect from people who know what is up.
2 Likes
New Balance doesn’t have a single basketball shoe on its website. I guess part of the allure is bootstrapping their basketball brand.
Cant Believe New Balance didnt sign Hayward, or one of the Zellers…
They tried really hard with Hayward and were in the mix with Embiid.
1 Like
1 Like
Tbf MSU came out of this looking pretty clean. Bowen really wanted to go there, so obviously they were gonna recruit him. He genuinely loved it there, but papa Bowen wanted the money. Multiple people with no reason to lie included in their testimony that they didn’t pay anyone. It’s not like thy consistently get top recruits either. Izzo is an ass, but it really seems like they’re relatively clean.
If they were paying I’m sure that Bowen and Weems would have committed there.
2 Likes
Yeah I’m not saying he runs a dirty program. I’m saying he recruits against dirty programs all day and isn’t afraid to chase guys he knows are being offered money elsewhere, even if he just claimed to the media that he won’t touch them if certain schools are involved.
There are texts between Christian Dawkins and Bowen Sr indicating that Bowen Sr really wanted Jr to go to MSU, but Jr did not want to.
1 Like
He could’ve legit stopped recruiting them though, we’ll never know. The insiders at 247 said that they cooled on Weems at the end. We laughed because it seemed like it was a dumb excuse for missing on a good prospect, but it makes sense for that to be the case in retrospect.
I’ll have to go through that thread again to check things.
Haney called Tugs Bowen “the decision-maker” during the events leading up to Bowen’s commitment to Louisville last year. Haney then had the court display the text exchange between Dawkins and Bowen Sr. on May 18, 2017, when Dawkins said Tugs should go to Michigan State. Tugs Bowen is from Saginaw, Michigan.
“lol go to Mich St Keep it simple,” Dawkins wrote in one text. “They want tugs.”
“I’m for MSU it’s him,” Bowen Sr. texted back. “He just is not feeling them I’ll ask him again today.”
2 Likes
I don’t think they’re blatant cheaters, but also don’t think they’re clean.
1 Like
Haney - former Magic Johnson extended family member and attorney for Magic - is not exactly an objective source as to whether MSU cheats.
1 Like