I posted tangible numbers that tie directly to his social media accounts reflecting the change post committing to Duke. The argument being made isn’t Duke vs other blue bloods though like you’re trying to twist it into, it’s College athletics vs the GLeague.
The longer you keep going, the more and more it seems like you’re just being argumentative for the sake of having an argument.
No, you just don't understand nuance.
It's quite simple. Zion, like Lebron, is an outlier.
Look at the article you posted. They rank them by overall amount paid. I broke it down by yearly amount.
11) Straight from HS - $2MM/year (Over 20 years ago)
10)
UNC - $2.4MM/year
9) LSU - $3MM/year
7)
Kentucky - $5MM/year
7)
UNC - $5MM/year
5)
Duke - $6MM/year
5) Georgetown - $6MM/year
4) Cuse - $6.67MM/year
3) Texas - $8.5MM/year
2) Duke - $15MM/year
1) High School - $13.85/year (including signing bonus)
All 11:
Average: $6.67MM/year
Mode: $5/6MM/year
Median: $5/$6MM per year
Without Zion's contract (since it skews the numbers we're talking about):
Average: $5.8MM/year
The top rookie contracts average about $6M/year. That includes guys who did multiple years of college.
Zion is getting 150% more than that. You think going to Duke bumped Zion's yearly contract up to $15MM/year from an average of $6.67MM/year because of his instagram followers.
I don't.
If you're going to argue about contracts and leverage, don't post instagram follows, stick to the contracts.
For most of the top talent, college is probably a wiser decision. For someone like Zion, he doesn't "need" Duke's leverage, and it's laughable that anyone would argue he wasn't a household name before Duke.