A Marketing Group Thinks Jalen Suggs Would Be Paid A Ho-Hum 6 Figures After Hitting The Buzzer Beater, If You Know, NIL Was A Thing

[Yahoo] - Let’s start with Suggs, who just experienced a rare NCAA moment that combined an impossible buzzer-beater, undefeated season and the elevated stage of the Final Four. How much could he profit off that in the next 48 hours before the title game tips off? Could Bank of America, for example, want to capitalize off of the bank shot?

“I bet a company would pay six figures for him today because he’s so hot,” said Peter Miller, the founder of the Jabez marketing group, who works with pro athletes like Dak Prescott.

I always love when these reports come out because of how ridiculous the number sounds. That said it's completely believable. Jalen Suggs just hit the 2nd or 3rd most iconic shot in the NCAA Tournament of my lifetime. It's Jenkins, Suggs and Laettner. Those are the 3 most iconic shots I've ever seen in the NCAA Tournament. Pretty good company! 

I also wanted to talk about this because I saw people immediately going to 'see this is why college basketball is great. Jalen Suggs improved his stock and will make more money in endorsements which is better than $500k to go play for the Ignite in the G League.' That's simply not true. Suggs entered the season as a consensus top-10 guy in the NBA Draft. He's now a consensus top-5. If you want to say he raised his stock, sure. By all means going from top-10 to top-5 is big. But you know who else is top-5? Two guys playing for the Ignite that have been top-5 before the season too. Seems like it doesn't really matter if you play for the Ignite or Gonzaga or overseas - just ask LaMelo Ball. 

Do you get more coverage playing college hoops? Sure, of course. There's no bigger even than the NCAA Tournament. But that hasn't stopped people like Ben Simmons, LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, etc from making money in the NBA. It's 2021, let's jus stop pretending like college ball is the only way you can get exposure for marketing deals. Let's also stop pretending like Jalen Suggs is the typical college basketball player. 

All I know is this - this is a prime example of why name, image and likeness needs to come to college basketball. It's insane that it can be reported that Suggs hitting a game-winner is worth 6 figures and we won't even know that for a few months. Just let him profit on that. He's the one who hit the shot. If a bank wants to use that image starting today, let Suggs get paid. We know how much money the G League guys are getting. They are making damn near close to a million bucks to study basketball, which is what these top guys are going to college for any ways. They aren't going to be sitting in Economics 101, it's basketball. That's their career. Just let them make money and we all can move on with our lives.