That ‘$2+ million’ in NIL money for Armando Bacot is the blueprint, folks

Armando Bacot won’t play in the NBA, probably won’t even get much run in the Summer League. But if what he said on a UNC hoops alum’s podcast this week is true, he made $2 million in NIL money for his two senior seasons at North Carolina.

“I made $2+ million. I’m saying that humbly, though,” Bacot said on a podcast hosted by former Tar Heel Theo Pinson, who got limited minutes in parts of five NBA seasons, before spending the 2023-2024 season in the G League.

Two million dollars for a guy who really had no other option but to return to Carolina for his traditional and then COVID redshirt senior seasons, because the NBA doesn’t have much use for a back-to-the-basket 6’9” guy who can’t defend the pick-and-roll and isn’t a rim protector.

“That speaks of the brand at North Carolina. If I didn’t go to North Carolina, I wouldn’t have been doing those deals at Turbo Tax and others,” Bacot told Pinson on the podcast.

This, folks, is where the NIL money should go – not to a one- or two-and-done, but to a veteran guy like a Bacot or a Hunter Dickinson, really good college players who, for whatever reason, don’t have a position in the NBA.

You don’t necessarily need to pay them a million dollars a year, if that’s what Bacot actually got from his NIL deals at UNC, because they’re in line to get at best half that if they can play themselves into a two-way NBA/G League deal or get into a really good situation overseas.

I’ll wonder out loud here if UVA hoops could have kept Reece Beekman for his COVID redshirt year if it could have come up with a competitive NIL deal.

Something to think about for the future there …