College basketball’s money race keeps getting louder, and Duke’s John Blackwell is now one of the clearest examples of just how far it has gone.
Blackwell, the Wisconsin transfer guard who became Duke’s biggest portal pickup this offseason, is set to earn more next season than LeBron James will in the NBA. James signed a two-year, $8 million veteran minimum deal with the Philadelphia 76ers this offseason and will make $3.8 million next season as he joins Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.
The Athletic reported that at least 18 men’s college basketball players will make at least $3.9 million, and Blackwell is on that list. Other ACC names included Louisville’s Flory Bidunga and Jackson Shelstad.
That number is a jolt on its own, but it lands even harder when set next to James, who is entering his 24th NBA season and chose the pay cut in pursuit of a championship. He wanted a title run. Blackwell, meanwhile, is part of a Duke roster that looks loaded heading into the 2026-27 season under Jon Scheyer.
The larger point is hard to miss: for a growing number of players, college basketball has become the better financial play. Blackwell tested the NBA Draft waters this offseason while committed to Duke, but he never drew real first-round buzz. For plenty of players in that range, staying in school now makes more sense than jumping to the league.
That calculation is already shaping decisions. UConn’s Braylon Mullins, a potential lottery pick, returned to Storrs this offseason. A move like that would have felt unthinkable not long ago.
The same pressure shows up lower down the board too. Duke’s Isaiah Evans and North Carolina’s Henri Veesaar were projected first-round picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, yet both stayed in the draft and both slid out of the first round, leaving millions on the table.
Even players who look safe in the middle or late part of the first round are now weighing college money against NBA guarantees in a way that simply wasn’t the case before. Blackwell is just one name on a growing list, but his case captures the shift perfectly: a top college player can now out-earn one of the greatest players ever, at least for a season, while still chasing the same game.
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