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Kentucky basketball star Oscar Tshiebwe isn’t necessarily relaxing on the team’s bonding trip to the Bahamas this week.
The Democratic Republic of Congo born player is utilizing this time outside of the United States to take advantage of NIL deals. Because he is on a student visa at Kentucky, he cannot appear in any promotional content for NIL deals in the U.S. He’s only able to license his name, image and likeness.
So, during his few days in the Bahamas thus far, the 22-year-old’s schedule has been filled with shooting advertising spots for various companies. He has worked to appear in radio and TV commercials along with signing autographs on trading cards, to name a few of the tasks he’s completing.
During the seven days the team is in the Bahamas this week, Tshiebwe is expected to earn around $500,000, which brings his NIL total to $2.75 million, per sources close to The Athletic. Coach John Calipari has centered team activities around the availability of the star forward while on the trip.
However, Tshiebwe’s limitations in the U.S. might come to an end soon. His agent, Nate Conley, and a startup company called Influxer have been working to change his student visa to a type of visa used by international celebrities.
The forward will enter his senior year at Kentucky for the 2022–23 season after he was named the SEC Player of the Year and the Associated Press Player of the Year last season. He averaged 17.4 points, 15.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals for the Wildcats, but was not satisfied with his NBA prospects at the time of the 2022 draft and realized he could make more money via NIL in college than in the NBA. This week’s earnings prove that much.
