Is John Calipari’s proposal for summertime hoops realistic? KU’s Bill Self likes idea
College basketball players are allowed to practice with their coaches and hold organized weight training sessions — and play in unsupervised intrasquad pickup games — in June and July when in town for the summer school session at their respective schools.
It’s possible that, in the future, teams such as the Kansas Jayhawks will be permitted to schedule summertime exhibition games to raise money for the players’ “name, image and likeness (NIL)“ and give the NBA Summer League some TV competition for the viewing dollar.
‘”Cal’ is on that kick now. I think it’s a pretty darn good idea,” KU coach Bill Self said of Kentucky coach John Calipari. According to The Athletic, Calipari has suggested summer basketball to the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has the support of Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s vice president of men’s basketball.
“I like it,” Self added, speaking Wednesday at the Big 12 men’s basketball tipoff event at T-Mobile Center, “because I think in basketball you do have a lag time where our sport is not promoted.
“I do think that would be good. There are different ways to do it. You can make NIL opportunities out of it or whatever. There’s a lot of good that can be done from people wanting to watch a basketball team in the summer. There’s what we did with Missouri several years ago,” Self stated.
KU and Missouri raised more than $2 million for hurricane relief in an exhibition game played in October of 2017 — one that sold out T-Mobile Center. One could envision a scenario in which KU plays one of its rivals or maybe a fellow blueblood in a limited summer schedule.
One could envision a lot of money being made for the players who could split the proceeds.
“You put 10,000 people in an arena at $50 each that’s a substantial amount of dollars that can go to a good cause,” Self said. Asked by The Star if the summer games could indeed go toward NIL for players, Self said: “I guess. I don’t know. It’ going to come to that where games in the regular season become potentially NIL type games, where a promoter takes over and runs something that is able to use players to promote the event, all that stuff. That’s a wave of the future without question.”
Self said at the Big 12 tipoff event he likes what he’s seen of what KU’s players are doing with their NIL.
The Jayhawk players work with Mass St. Collective, which was founded in July of 2021 to assist KU student athletes in building their brand and helping the players find permissible activities to participate in to monetize their NIL.
KU’s coaches and athletic department officials cannot help the players in that regard.
“I actually feel better than I did,” Self said of the future of NIL with student-athletes at KU. “I didn’t feel good about it at all four months ago, at all, but I’m starting to see things that are good andam starting to see some positive things that can come with it with your players.
“A majority of our guys, like a majority of guys of other players (schools) didn’t come from the means to give away money. My guys have given away away $27,000 to different charities since they’ve had a little bit of money (from NIL) that they could use in discretionary ways they never had (before NIL).”
Self said NIL can be about more than players earning as much money as they can for themselves.
“I heard a great story by Nick Collison,” Self said of the former KU All-America forward who did not have NIL dollars available when he went to school. “The people knocking NIL maybe should hear the story. (He’s from) a two-parent house, both school teachers, dad’s a coach. They didn’t fly when they went to watch a game.
“Nick made a lot of money on Barnstorming (Tour of the state with his fellow KU seniors) after his career was done. He just gave that money to his parents. He said, ‘Put it in a safe deposit box, and if you need it get into it.’ Next thing you know his parents said, ‘It comes at a great time. We never wanted to tell you, but we spent this amount of money traveling to watch you play.’ It’s an exorbitant amount of money. Think about four years, all the road trips just to see your kid play. That’s expensive for a family. That was a story I don’t think people take in consideration. This is a good thing in theory. There’s just some consequences unintended about it,” Self added.
Self was referring to “third parties that see the youngster as a way to provide for a living through NIL and other things.”
Jayhawks to hold upcoming Ladies Night Out
The KU men’s basketball team will hold the program’s 12th-annual “Ladies Night Out” from 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The women’s only clinic is “designed for KU fans interested in getting a look behind the scenes of the Jayhawk basketball program with an up-close opportunity to interact with head coach Bill Self, the basketball staff and 2022-23 team,” Mass St. Collective wrote in a release.
To register for the event, which is an NIL event, go to this Website.
