Kentucky Basketball players sign NIL deal with Morgan & Morgan
The NIL deals keep rolling in for the Kentucky Basketball team. Last week, the players announced a partnership with FTX cryptocurrency exchange. Today, news of another big deal dropped. Ten Kentucky Basketball players are partnering with Morgan & Morgan, the largest plaintiffs’ law firm in the country: Keion Brooks, Daimion Collins, CJ Fredrick, Kellan Grady, Bryce Hopkins, Davion Mintz, Jacob Toppin, TyTy Washington, Lance Ware, and Sahvir Wheeler.
The deal is being advertised on a digital billboard in Times Square in New York City, perfectly timed ahead of tomorrow night’s showdown with Duke in the Champions Classic. The billboard will be up through Sunday, November 14, and feature all ten players. More billboards will go up around the state of Kentucky this month.
“We could not be more excited to partner with these incredible college basketball players,” said Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan. “This NCAA rule change has long been overdue and we’re thrilled to support these amazing athletes and unveil a new billboard featuring some of the best players in all of college basketball.”
The basketball team is not the first group of Cats to partner with the law firm. Earlier this fall, Darian Kinnard, Marquan McCall, Justin Rogers, and Josh Paschal signed deals with Morgan & Morgan. You can see their billboard in Lexington. Because Morgan and Morgan is also an official sponsor of UK Athletics, the players can sport their Kentucky jerseys in advertisements.
Keion Brooks: Kentucky’s NIL infrastructure is “great”
It’s no surprise Kentucky Basketball is leading the way when it comes to NIL. John Calipari made his name as a players-first coach and has long been an advocate for NIL rights. He even created a role on his staff for it, Director of Player Development, bringing on former KSR editor TJ Beisner. Keion Brooks said today that Calipari and the staff have done an excellent job guiding the players through these uncharted waters.
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“I think as far back when there was an inkling that name, image, and likeness would really become a thing, I feel like Coach did a good job of putting an infrastructure around us so that when name, image, and likeness did come into fruition that we’d have some great opportunities,” Brooks said. “He’s just been doing a great job of helping us and leading us in the right direction with the opportunities that are presented to us. Kentucky has a huge platform and our infrastructure has been great in giving us the right guidance on how to tread this new water.”
TyTy Washington: NIL won’t be a distraction
Kentucky’s players have taken a team-first approach to NIL, signing joint deals with ProCampsU/KSR, FTX, and now Morgan & Morgan; however, several have signed individual NIL deals as well. Freshman TyTy Washington leads the bunch, signing partnerships with Blue Grass Motorsports, Gatorade, America’s Best Caviar, and T.R.A.P. House Clothing (we hear his Fazoli’s deal will become official soon). This morning, Washington insisted NIL won’t be a distraction now that the season has begun.
“I feel like the NIL stuff is good for us before the season and all that. Now that we’re just one day from our game and the season is really here, I feel like all of our attention is focused on just getting better and winning games. We’re not really going out worrying about if we perform at a high level, our value increases, and stuff like that. We’re just really looking for stuff to help us win.”
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