The recent growth of NIL opportunities has been a major incentive for players to stay in college longer and work on their game before pursuing an NBA career. The trend is also providing benefits for players in the G League — the NBA’s North American-based developmental league. The extra money comes in handy, because although some players get Exhibit 10 or two-way contracts, the standard G League salary is only roughly $43,000.
The average G League career is only two-and-a-half seasons, and one of the main reasons players leave before getting a shot in the NBA is that they are able to make significantly more money overseas. But sticking it out in the G League has paid off for some players, including Drew Timme. The former Gonzaga star played more than 40 G League games in the past two seasons. He then earned a call-up with the Nets at the end of the 2024-25 NBA regular season, played well against NBA competition (averaging 12.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in nine games) and earned a two-year contract with Brooklyn this summer.
“Obviously it’s no one’s first choice. But looking back on it, it definitely helped me a lot, and I really did need it,” Timme said of the G League. “It definitely helped me just work on the things I needed to work on to be able to get in the NBA. I don’t think it would have gone well if I didn’t get that. I really needed time to figure things out, and that’s what the G League is for. It’s there to help you get better and take that next step, and it definitely was instrumental for me.”
Jeff Aubry, the Executive Director of the G League players union (Next Gen Basketball Players Union), said the number of NBA players with G League experience keeps rising, which shows the value of investing in it to keep talent around.
“Last year we had 79 call-ups. The year before we had 81,” Aubry said. “Those are the second and third most call-ups in the history of the league, and I think the trend is going to be pretty consistent… Right now, over half of NBA players have G League experience, between your three two-way players per team, assignment players — I think there were over 100 individual players assigned to the G League last season. The year before it was 90 something.”
One of the reasons why the numbers are rising, Aubry explained, is because making NIL money in college “gives guys the flexibility to hang around and explore their opportunities in the G League.”
Timme had multiple NIL deals in college, many revolving around his iconic mustache. Some deals were with local companies in Spokane and some were with major brands such as Beats by Dre and Pringles. The former Gonzaga star chose to not work on many NIL deals after he graduated because wanted to avoid distractions while trying to make it in the NBA. However, he was also in a good position because he started with an Exhibit 10 contract (a one-year, minimum salary deal) — although he did consider going overseas before signing with the Nets.
Timme benefited from playing for a high-profile college team, as did Armando Bacot who last year opened up about earning over $2 million through NIL deals at North Carolina.
“Two million plus — but I’m saying that humbly, though,” Bacot said in the Run Your Race podcast. “But that speaks on a brand of Carolina…. because I’ve got life-changing money just in college playing basketball. Life-changing money.”
Student-athletes have the possibility of making a lot of money, but the cash won’t necessarily keep flowing after they graduate. Since Aubry sees this first hand, he decided to worked with Columbia University to figure out how players could retain the NIL value they had in the NCAA and create more opportunities for themselves as pros.
One of the students involved in the project was Carlos Fuentes, who brokered deals for his own teammates when he played for the University of Denver. Fuentes said a lot of the deals he worked on in college lasted only a few months or ended when the athlete graduated.
“One of the main reasons why we were tackling this issue is because nobody has really paid attention to the NIL landscape after the NCAA,” he said. “Some of these players were earning, you know, $800,000, or even millions of dollars in college, but once they graduate and they go on to their professional careers, nobody really knows what happens with their NIL visibility and their marketability.”
Fuentes talked about March Madness as a huge marketing event, and also the support of alumni being invaluable because it often translates to money. Collectives, marketing departments and having games on national TV also help college athletes with their visibility. Fuentes’ final presentation highlighted that “G League players often navigate NIL with little institutional infrastructure — creating a steep drop-off in opportunity.”
Fuentes and his classmates suggested multiple strategies to help G League players. That includes using NIL brand portals like Opendorse, which features over 100,000 athletes — including some big names like Steph Curry — who are available for services such as birthday shoutouts, autographs, brand endorsements and appearances. Aubry said this could be particularly helpful for players to gain more visibility in their local communities. He has already reached out to a few companies to figure out the best way to get his players on the platforms.
The marketplace suggestion goes hand-in-hand with another strategy: Educating G League players on growing their personal brand. Someone who has already mastered this area is G League forward Dakota Rivers, who plays for the Texas Legends and became an influencer during his time at Florida Gulf Coast. He currently has 171K subscribers on YouTube and 101K followers on Instagram.
As a college athlete, Rivers got to work with brands such as McDonald’s, Walmart, Crocs and Gatorade. These were not long-term deals so they didn’t follow him into his G League career after he went undrafted in 2024. However, his social media presence has helped him keep a steady income.
“I will say thankfully I did have a presence on social media before I made the G League,” Rivers said. “I was still consistent with the money I was making even when I did graduate college because I was able to have a level of consistency with my Youtube channel and my Instagram and still make money that I can live off of.”
Aubry said Rivers is the perfect example of how athletes can create opportunities for themselves regardless of how long they stay in the G League.
“I think he’s kind of the blueprint and he’s been doing it since college. Very similar content, very engaging, great personality,” Aubry said. “So I think that’s kind of the model I’d be looking at in terms of having players be more proactive about creating their socials, in a space where engagement is really going to drive the dollars.”
Aubry wants his players to be educated enough to take advantage of the current boom of NIL deals.
“I feel like in the NCAA, things are kind of just put in front of them and given to them. And then they come to the G League and there’s nobody to give you anything,” he said. “You have to kind of figure it out if you’re gonna be able to leverage those kind of opportunities, you have to be very proactive in making them happen. So giving them the tools to kind of continue to build on their brand, whatever they established in college, I think is important. And then just further their education so that they have a deep understanding of the business they’re working in.”
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