Hunter Dickinson, one of the highest-profile transfers in men’s college basketball history, revealed Tuesday a key reason he decided to depart Michigan: name, image and likeness money.
On the latest episode of the Roundball Podcast, a show Dickinson co-hosts with Barstool Sports’ Marty Mush and former Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon, Dickinson made some eye-popping claims about how little money he earned through NIL last season while playing for the Wolverines.
“The people hating on me would leave their job right now for a $10,000 [a year] increase,” Dickinson said. “At Michigan, I got less than six figures for the year.”
Dickinson, an All-American in 2021 with the Wolverines who averaged 18.5 points and nine rebounds per game this past season, picked Kansas over Kentucky, Maryland, Villanova and Georgetown once he decided to leave Michigan. And while it hasn’t been revealed what Dickinson will make with the Jayhawks, it’s safe to assume he’s seeing a major raise from his time in Ann Arbor.
Dickinson’s recruitment in the portal was tied heavily to NIL: Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio reported in the lead-up to his commitment to the Jayhawks that a major holdup in Kentucky’s recruitment of the star big man was the program’s unwillingness to “guarantee” a certain dollar figure for Dickinson.
“I won’t say anything bad about the [Michigan] basketball program because I do still love Michigan… that’s why it was so hard to leave,” Dickinson said. “I really didn’t want to leave, but I just felt like it was the best decision for me and it took a lot of courage.”
