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All in all, NIL has been a pretty good deal for athletes like Kansas State’s Coleman Hawkins. Getting paid millions of dollars to do what their equivalents were doing for free not even five years ago, with effectively free transfers between programs if a higher bid comes in, shouldn’t have many downsides.
Hawkins, however, personified what can go wrong in a single postgame interview on Wednesday.
The interview came after Kansas State lost 70-56 to Baylor in the Big 12 tournament, effectively ending its season. Head coach Jerome Tang said after the gamethe program is unlikely to accept a bid in a consolation tournament.
That leaves the Wildcats, and Hawkins, with no more opportunities to redeem their season.
Kansas State entered the year with a moderate amount of hype, receiving votes in the preseason AP poll after landing Hawkins, who left Illinois initially for the NBA Draft then opted to return to college and transfer into Manhattan.
NIL was presumably behind the decision. Hawkins was reportedly paid $2 million, tied with Washington’s Great Osobor for the largest known payment to a college basketball player last cycle. In return for that money, Kansas State was expected to receive a legit NBA prospect who earned third-team All-Big Ten honors and helped lead the Illini to the Elite Eight last season.
