College Basketball Prospects Flock to 3x3 Showcase and Increase NIL Earning Power

The Strictly Bball HS National 3x3 event highlighted not only athlete talent but personal brands in a highly publicized event

Strictly BBall HS 3x3 National Basketball Tournament. Team NYC faces off against Team Texas at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. / Copyright Snapback Agency

Last weekend, high schoolers from six states flew to Minneapolis to showcase their talents at the Strictly Bball HS Nationals 3x3 event. The competition took place inside the Mall of America, a true Minneapolis landmark, and garnered a massive four-story crowd. While the on-court competition was hard fought, the showcase of talent and personality proved to be valuable in helping these prep athletes build their NIL brands before their collegiate careers.

NIL collectives pay elite athletes handsomely for their performance on the court, and it is no surprise that the highest-paid college basketball players, like two-million dollar men Great Osobor and Coleman Hawkins, often garner the most media attention. However, it is important to remember that these athletes are the exception and not the rule. The vast majority of those playing Division I basketball can earn some form of ‘pay-for-play’ payment from NIL collectives, but outside of the top 1% of collegiate talent, being a capable influencer is much more lucrative than any collective payment an athlete will receive. 

During last weekend’s basketball festivities, the Mall of America featured two marquee competitions: the aforementioned Strictly Bball 3x3 HS Nationals and the Game ChangeHER Creator Shootout. These competitions were designed not just to entertain but to provide a platform for young athletes and creators to showcase their skills and personal brand. According to Alex Sheinman, Co-founder of Snapback Agency, the entity responsible for facilitating both events, “We had this vision over six months ago to take some of the top influencers and high school athletes and bring them together all in one place; we pitched this idea to the #1 Mall in America - Mall of America to partner on this event with us. The execution between the talent, the brands, and this amazing venue was beyond valuable.”

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On Friday, fifteen female basketball influencers competed in a shooting competition for a grand prize of $20,000. The prize money was fronted by Game ChangeHER, a female empowerment brand created by sports influencer Jenna Bandy, who played collegiate basketball at Cal State Monterey Bay. In the words of Bandy, who has accrued over a million followers on TikTok and will soon hit the seven-figure subscriber mark on YouTube, “This event was an opportunity for me to give a platform for other females to shine… seeing that come to life was a dream come true for me. I’m excited to keep building upon our mission and grow the brand.”

The following day, it was the high school athletes who took to the court in a 3x3 competition. Popularized by its recent integration into Olympic competitions, 3x3 basketball is gaining traction within the United States as a legitimate way to compete within the sport. Bringing out prep prospects to take part in this form of basketball only further solidified this notion and provided a unique opportunity for those in the Minneapolis area to experience a different version of basketball. 

While not on the court, the high school athletes rubbed shoulders with viral content creators from the previous day’s Game ChangeHer shootout and were able to produced some joint content. 

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Noah Neuman, one of Team Texas’s competitors, is a prep athlete with strong social media acumen. Neuman was very pleased with the 3x3 event: "The energy was electric. The venue was unlike any other I’ve played in. I mean, picture it: four stories of basketball fans! It was intense and absolutely unreal, and I was grateful for the opportunity." 

With over 800,000 followers on TikTok, Neuman is already cashing in on his NIL and will have no issue continuing that at the collegiate level: the rising senior holds offers from local Sam Houston State and Division II Westmont College. The 6’0” guard is the embodiment of an athlete who is unlikely to make any money from a NIL collective “pay-for-play” deal but will out-earn a significant proportion of his collegiate basketball peers through influencer notoriety. 

This event was an absolute game-changer for other athletes who took the court without a strong social media presence like Neuman. The exposure that an event like this was able to bring up-and-coming college athletes is incredibly valuable to their NIL earning power. Joe Doerrer, Co-Founder of StrictlyBball, noted the impressive media attention the event garnered, "A one-of-a-kind event like this naturally had a major spotlight on it, and the players that participated benefited because of that. Over 30 local and national media personnel attended the event, publishing hundreds of pieces of content with direct social media tags to the participating players… Players having the opportunity to build a social media presence and showcase their personality in high school sets them up for more success in college with NIL opportunities."

Beyond the boost athletes will receive from the 3x3 tournament, an even bigger avenue for the participants to grow their brand is on the horizon. According to Doerer, athletes from the 3x3 HS National event will be featured in an upcoming documentary produced by Strictly Bball. The more face-time these athletes are able to have on regional and national platforms, the larger their bank accounts will be. With marketing trends indicating that many companies are shifting at least a part of their advertising budgets from athletes with the most on-court talent to elite influencers, events like this are incredibly valuable to athletes-influencers and brands.