As Paige Bueckers plays in her final March Madness tournament, she’s expected to be the number one pick in the WNBA draft next month. “It’s been a dream to play here, a dream to wear this uniform, a dream to play in this environment,” she said at her final University of Connecticut home game. “You just take every single chance you have and never take it for granted.”
In her rookie year in the WNBA, she’s expected to make $76,000, but her net worth so far will largely be based on the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals she’s made as a college player. But these contracts won’t end with her graduation—many of the partnerships she’s signed will extend through her career as a professional women’s basketball player. (In 2021, NCAA started to allow college athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness for the first time.)
College and high school sports media company On3 estimates Bueckers’s NIL valuation at $1.4 million for the 2024-25 season, with deals including Nike, Bose, CeraVe, Gatorade, Chegg, Verizon, Intuit, Madison Reed, Panini America, and Dunkin’.
Many of her NIL partnerships were historic: She was the first college athlete to have a multi-year endorsement deal with Gatorade, and the first college athlete to have a player edition Nike shoe. “It’s definitely motivating to wear your own shoe,” Bueckers said in a statement at the time. “I grew up wearing Nikes — all the signature shoes — so it’s surreal to have this player edition model. I just want to show out in it.” And, last summer, Bueckers signed a historic deal with the Unrivaled Basketball League, a new 3v3 women’s league, becoming “the first [collegiate] athlete to have ownership equity in a league.”
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
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