If Overtime Elite’s signing of Naasir Cunningham, widely regarded as the top player in 2024, was a smoke signal that there was a new type of player in the high school recruiting world, this week’s signing of eight equally major prospects was the proverbial bullhorn.
OTE reeled off an impressive run of top prospects in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes, solidifying its presence in the space.
All eight prospects – Trey Parker, Kanaan Carlyle, ZZ Clark, Bryson Tiller, Jahki Howard, Tyler Bey, Jayden Williams and Jeremy Fears – chose to waive the $100,000 salary in order to maintain their NCAA eligibility, a lane that Cunningham pioneered back when he signed in April.
Overtime
Adding the scholarship option was the ultimate chess move by the upstart pro league, which was already enticing top talent with a brand new state-of-the-art 103,000-square-foot arena, pro skills trainers, personalized education and more than 55 million followers across seven social platforms.
OTE’s vice president of recruiting and player personnel Tim Fuller served as an assistant and associate head coach at the Power 5 level for more than eight years and said one of the league’s strongest selling points is its focus on building pro habits.
"I look at it like we're the premiere developmental opportunity for 19 and under here in the United States,” Fuller says. “You come to OTE to build pro habits and develop a pro skill set. Look at All-NBA first team: You’ve got Luka [Dončić], Giannis [Antetokounmpo] and [Nikola] Jokić, but what about our kids here domestically? Somebody has to start to give them the Luka package. If that doesn’t start to happen, we’re gonna see less and less of our kids dominating at the ultimate level. At OTE that's what we're doing.”
