5 former NCAA Basketball players who would've benefitted from NIL rules

NCAA Basketball: Top 5 former players who would’ve benefitted from new NIL rules

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - APRIL 05: Detail view of a Wilson basketball during the National Championship game of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament between the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Baylor Bears at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 05, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images) /

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Anthony Davis, Kentucky Wildcats NCAA Basketball (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

4. Anthony Davis: University of Kentucky

Current Instagram Follower Count: 6.9M

Current Twitter Follower Count: 2.1M

Anthony Davis is one of the best players in the NBA, last season he won his first NBA Finals in his first season playing with the Lakers alongside LeBron, but before he became the NBA Super Star we now know him as, he was an incredible college basketball player at Kentucky.

Davis was an unstoppable force at Kentucky, where in his lone season he averaged 14.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game, and helped the Wildcats win the National Championship while also winning the Wooden Award, and the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, in addition to winning just about every other award you can name.

All that being said, Davis was an incredible player playing at arguably the biggest college basketball school you can play at. Because of this, Davis was wildly popular during his lone college season, and that popularity continued into the NBA where he was the first overall pick in the NBA Draft.

If the name, image, and likeness rules that took place on July 1st, were in place while Davis was at Kentucky, he would’ve made a ton of money. From the razor companies that would’ve wanted to sign him because of his signature unibrow, to every other company under the sun, everyone would have wanted a piece of the guy who everyone knew was going to be the first overall pick.

Davis was one of those players you just knew were going to be good in the NBA, and for that reason, many companies would’ve sponsored him while he was in college, so once he got to the NBA and was making an even bigger name for himself, they would already have a relationship.

The reason Davis isn’t higher on this list is because of the fact that social media was not nearly as popular as it is now, and for that reason, he likely wouldn’t have gotten as many opportunities as players in college now, and over the last couple of years.

Davis still would have made a ton of money, but it wouldn’t have been quite as much as the players who are at the one, two, and three spots on this list.

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