💸 Why Zion Paid $64K to Play in March Madness

Remember Amir 'Aura' Khan, the viral student manager from McNeese State last year?

Well, it turns out his job isn’t just to lead his team out of the locker room with a jukebox. In fact, I recently experienced a game day firsthand as a college basketball student manager, and it was nothing like what I expected.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why Zion Paid $64K to Play in March Madness

📉 Biggest Loser: What’s Wrong with the March Madness Balls?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Meet the 15-Year-Old African Soccer Player Turned March Madness Star

🗞 The Big Story

Zion Williamson once paid $64,000 to play in March Madness, but it’s actually one of the smartest financial decisions in sports history. Let’s break it down.

Money Matters: Every year, there’s at least one star that emerges in March, helping raise their draft profile from a relative unknown to a top NBA prospect in a matter of weeks. However, for an undisputed star like Zion, what’s the upside of playing in the tournament?

Sure, these days, a deep run could mean a few short-term NIL deals, but even that money pales in comparison to what the best college basketball players can make once they reach the NBA. For example, after getting drafted No. 1 overall in 2019, Zion was already set to make a total of $44 million over the next four years, but what if he had blown out his knee in the first round of March Madness?

It’s not impossible to think he could have gone from making over $44M as the first overall pick to falling outside of the top 5 (which would have cost him nearly $20 million).

2019 NBA Rookie Wage Scale (Total Value):

• Pick 1: $44,271,137

• Pick 2: $39,619,840

• Pick 3 $35,596,275

• Pick 4: $32,101,641

• Pick 5: $29,083,315

• Pick 6: $26,422,143

And, unfortunately, as players like JT Toppin (torn ACL) and Caleb Foster (fractured foot) will tell you, that’s a real possibility. Which is why, before his freshman season at Duke, Zion did something that very few players can afford to do.

Planning Ahead: Before the 2019 college basketball season, Zion purchased something called Loss of Value insurance to protect himself in case he suffered a serious injury.

Now, according to Darren Rovell, Zion’s policy stipulated that if he were to fall past the No. 16 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft because of injury or illness, he would be entitled to $8 million. However, even though a policy like this may sound like a no-brainer for any of this year’s top college stars, it’s actually extremely rare for most players.

The Bill: That’s because, according to CBS Sports, policies like these typically cost up to $8,000 per million of coverage per year. Which means for an $8 million policy like Zion’s, it would have cost him an estimated $64,000 to play for Duke that year.

Now, for most college stars today who are earning millions of dollars through NIL, $64,000 per year is just a drop in the bucket. Still, fortunately for these players, schools can cover the cost of their insurance policies as a recruiting tactic if they deem the player “valuable enough.”

But regardless, with over $62 million on the line to be this year’s first-overall pick, hedging your bets seems like the smart financial move.

📉 Biggest Loser

What the hell is going on with these March Madness basketballs?

Because it seems like every year, players, coaches, and fans all point out that the balls used in the tournament are always over-inflated, however, the reason why is actually a lot more complicated than you might think.

New Materials: Even though Wilson has been the official provider of March Madness basketballs since 2002, complaints about the balls being “overinflated” didn’t really start until 2022, after the company introduced its newest model, the Evo NXT.

Now, on the surface, this new ball was a welcome upgrade compared to what college athletes were using before, since it featured a new kind of “Micro-Touch” cover that gave the ball an extra layer of grip and moisture management, making it easier to control and giving it a much softer feel compared to earlier models.

But, as it turns out, this new design feature had one major unintended consequence.

Blame Game: Since the Evo NXT feels softer to the touch, some people have pointed out that equipment managers might mistake that “softness” for “squishiness,” leading them to over-inflate the balls.

@cbbonfox

A March tradition unlike any other…the over-inflated basketball discourse 👀 (Via X/ReboundRundown) #marchmadness #ncaatournament #cbb #college

But even though some players and coaches might point to historical tournament 3-point shooting percentages to convince you that it has gotten worse since the introduction of these new basketballs, I don’t think the balls are to blame.

The Culprit: Instead, if you want to point the finger at anyone, point it at the NCAA, which one former player blames for the massive discrepancy in how basketballs perform during March. That’s because, instead of setting a rule for the level of inflation for each ball, the NCAA just gives a 7 to 9 PSI range, which this player describes as “too big.”

Still, at the end of the day, when you look at virtually every other shooting stat across leagues that have made the switch to this new ball, what you’ll find is that any drop off in shooting performance probably has much more to do with tournament pressure and playing in football stadiums than it does the actual ball.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

How did this 15-year-old soccer player from the Congo go from never playing organized basketball to one of the biggest college stars in the world in less than 5 years?

Diamond in the Rough: This is Flory Bidunga. Born in 2005 in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Flory grew up like most kids in his city, playing soccer. That was, until one day in 2019, during a shopping trip with his mom, when the 6’9” 14-year-old was stopped by a man who suggested that he play basketball instead.

So, a few days later, Flory picked up a basketball for the first time ever, where his natural talent became obvious almost immediately.

And not wanting to waste it, Flory’s parents started searching for schools in the U.S. for him to attend, where he could develop his skills and, hopefully, one day attend an American university.

What better place to start than the epicenter of American high school basketball!?

Superstar: When Flory arrived in Kokomo, Indiana, as a sophomore in 2021, the school’s head coach described his talent as “raw,” but it didn’t take long for the kid who could already speak five languages to pick up the game.

In fact, after his first year in America, he went from unknown and unranked to the No. 6 prospect in the Class of 2024, helping him attract 17 offers, including one from Bill Self at Kansas, where he eventually committed.

And after a freshman season in which he averaged just 16 minutes and 5.9 points per game, Flory took the NCAA by storm this year and was named First Team All-Big 12 and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Even though he’s currently mocked to go in the second round of this year’s NBA Draft, I wouldn’t be surprised to see his stock rise again after more people learn about him this March.

⏱️ In Other News

• I Survived a College Game Day as a Student Manager

• Graphic design has come so far

• How much money do teams make from March Madness?

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

There are a lot of sports going on right now. Here’s a palate cleanser.

Apparently, throughout the 1930s, state fairs around the country would crash trains into each other for spectators to watch, resulting in a poster I never knew I needed.