The NBA Stars Fueling the NIL Arms Race

Last April, five-star power forward Jayden Quaintance decommitted from Kentucky after an Arkansas chicken magnate lured legendary Wildcats coach John Calipari to Fayetteville.

The rising freshman was a can’t-miss prospect in the one-and-done era, but he was only 17, meaning whatever college he chose would get two years of production before he became draft eligible. 

On April 29, Quaintance committed to Arizona State, a team coming off a 14–18 season that had made the tournament just five times in the past 20 years, never advancing beyond the second round. 

But the Sun Devils had something those other programs lacked: a high-six-figure donation from NBA superstar James Harden to his alma mater’s Sun Angel collective, Front Office Sports has learned.

Harden’s two-year college career came well before college athletes could legally earn money for their NIL (name, image, and likeness), but now he’s involved in helping his school compete with the big boys for top talent. Adding Quaintance helped the Sun Devils sign a top-10 recruiting class heading into this season.

Professional athletes have given back to their colleges for years. What’s new is the ability to cut out the middleman. Most NBA players who talked to Front Office Sports for this story said they were still more interested in the traditional ways of giving, like donations of gear or funding for facilities. But is Harden just ahead of the curve?

Compared to a football roster (which can cost $20 million like Ohio State’s), a college hoops team is tiny, meaning it costs less to stock a contender. Plus, the average NBA salary this season was roughly $12 million, which is nearly four times as much as the average in the NFL ($3.2 million).  

Rob Sine, the CEO of Blueprint Sports, a company that operates NIL collectives, put it more simply: “Two million [dollars] for football is hard to make a direct impact to a team or to a program,” Sine told FOS. “Two million [dollars] for a college basketball program can be night and day as far as how the team performs, how they can recruit.”

But despite how far their money could go in the NIL world, many of Harden’s peers in the NBA aren’t interested. At least not right now.

One theory: A general manager of a Power 4 team told FOS his program’s NBA alums are “too bitter” over missing out on their own NIL money. He’s given up on trying to get them to donate to their collective. (Even Harden admits that he can’t imagine his career if he had made significant money as an undergraduate. “I would have wanted NIL, but if I was getting six figures in college, I don’t even know where I would be,” he said to FOS. “The hunger wouldn’t probably be there.”)

Other players come from schools so small that they don’t have built-out NIL operations. Asked about an NIL setup between him and Weber State, Damian Lillard told FOS, “We’re working on it.” His former running mate in Portland, CJ McCollum, played at Lehigh, and NIL is such a nonfactor in the Patriot League that the Mountain Hawks haven’t had to ask him for help, a source told FOS.

And then there is perhaps the most obvious reason Harden is an anomaly. Though NBA players can become extremely wealthy—Harden has earned $372 million from his contracts to date—many say they don’t want to throw their hard-earned money away on something unpredictable like college athlete performance.

One NBA All-Star requested anonymity to speak candidly about the NIL market. He’s given back to his school throughout his career but never to NIL. “You want me to pay $250,000 just to get a guy to come play for my school?” he told FOS. “And then I have to watch them potentially average five points per game and come off the bench? The market for this stuff is crazy.” 

Several players have written huge checks, instead, to build practice facilities with their names on them. Among them are Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse), Kevin Durant (Texas), Russell Westbrook (UCLA), and Draymond Green (Michigan State). ESPN analyst and NBA champion Richard Jefferson did the same at Arizona, at a cost of $3.5 million, and he explained to FOS why he won’t be funding the Wildcats’ collectives anytime soon.

“Why would you invest your money in something that isn’t regulated?” Jefferson told FOS. “You put money into a pool and you can give a kid a million dollars, and the next year someone can offer him $1.1 million at another school, and he can just go. If you want to invest in your school, invest in a practice facility. Invest in something that can actually be there versus just trying to buy players. That, to me, is a waste of time.”

Harden knows his approach stands out from many of his peers. He spends offseasons in Scottsdale, works out at the university, and enjoys being on campus 16 years after being a student.

“NIL nowadays is the most important thing, because kids want to be compensated for their play and their work, which makes sense,” Harden said. “I wanted to be a part of helping the team and the school get players … and if NIL is the problem, then I can help with that.”

It’s clear that players like Harden view the returns on their investment differently. Hawks guard Georges Niang has contributed $100,000 annually to Iowa State’s We Will collective since NIL became legal in 2021, and he’s happy to try to help fund his alma mater’s success. Even so, he’s aware of the downside of his decision. 

“I think the tough part is just, like, from an investor’s standpoint, it’s almost like burnt money, right?” Niang said. “I’m not able to go support them and see the product, so there’s kind of a downfall of that. But at the same time, I do get to see them on TV—they are top-10—so I would say that that’s a good return on investment.” 

Like Niang, Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton, a fellow ISU alum, has contributed $100,000 annually to the collective since 2021. He is in the first season of a $244 million extension; his $42 million salary this year already outstrips the $30 million Niang has made in his career.

“Iowa State, we are not donor-heavy, you know?” Haliburton told FOS. “There’s not a ton, and I’m fortunate enough to make a decent amount of money where I can help out wherever I can.” 

Nets center Nic Claxton echoed Haliburton’s thinking. Claxton played at Georgia and donated to the Bulldogs’ collective last season. (He wouldn’t disclose the amount of money he gave, joking that it wasn’t in the financial ballpark of Harden, his former Nets teammate.) 

At a school where football is king, Claxton—who signed a four-year, $100 million contract with the Nets in 2024—said one of his reasons for donating was the lack of money the basketball program was getting compared to its competitors. 

“UGA basketball, they’re still working on getting that NIL pumping,” Claxton told FOS. “I think it’s more set up now, but this was before it was set up, so I was trying to help any way I can.” 

Despite Harden’s largesse, the Sun Devils are proof that spending doesn’t perfectly correlate with winning. As of Feb. 24, Arizona State sits at 13–14, with a 4–12 record in the Big 12, which is second to last in the conference.

Every NBA player interviewed for this story said he hasn’t directed his donations toward a specific player or position, instead trusting the collective and coaching staff to spend the money wisely. Harden said he regularly talks with Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley about what the program needs but doesn’t tell him how to do his job. 

“Good season, bad season, it doesn’t matter for me,” Harden said. “There’s a part of this sport where you can’t be great every single year. So, for me, it’s just having their back on my end. But if they need help, the help is there.”

Haliburton also said results “don’t really factor in” his decision to give to his alma mater. But not everyone was so zen. Niang said he has no problem donating while Iowa State is thriving (the Cyclones are 21–6), but a down year or two would likely cause him to reconsider his donation or its amount. 

“I hope these kids are ready to be looked at as professionals,” Niang said. “If you don’t get the job done, I don’t have time to waste. You’re a good kid, but if you’re not producing at the rate that I’m compensating you, like, what are we doing? That’s kind of how the world works.”

Claxton also voiced some hesitation. He wants to see how NIL evolves in the coming years before considering a donation in the realm of Harden’s. 

“I don’t know about that,” Claxton said. “That’s a lot of money.”