No one is in Braylon Mullins’ head, or in his heart. The decision he is soon to make, or maybe given the current vagueries of the rules will not have to make so soon, is his alone. He can listen to and take advice from whoever he chooses.
None of us can know what it’s like to be 19, from a small town in Indiana, and have to choose between playing basketball for millions and millions of dollars, or playing it for millions and millions and millions of dollars. There is no bad choice here only the one that’s right for him.
“Just being in the present right now, trying to get over this hump,” Mullins said in the emotional moments following UConn’s loss to Michigan in the national championship game. “I don’t know what my future holds, I’ll do whatever makes me a better person or player.”
Dom Amore: Braylon Mullins’ shot shook the world, from UConn to all the way back home in Indiana
This is a more interesting, fascinating decision than it would have been only a few years ago. Of course, Mullins is not ready for the NBA, no debate there. This is not the least bit relevant, however. If an NBA team is willing to draft a player high enough, invest millions in him, then it’s the franchise’s concern whether or not he is ready and to develop him until he is. This is why they like to draft younger players, and take their development into their own hands.
In the days before name-image-and-likeness opportunities and revenue sharing, it would have been unwise for any player confident of being picked in the first round to go back to school. Let’s be real, if someone offered you, say, $5 million to play basketball, would you say, “Oh, no, I’m sorry, sir, I’m just not ready. I can’t take your money.”
More likely, you’d have your pen out quicker than the split second it takes Mullins to catch it and get off a shot.
But that was the old days. The present day makes it more complicated, maybe close to even-money odds and closer to a dollar-to-dollar proposition.
“I would just say now in college, unless it absolutely makes total sense for you to go in the draft, unless you know you’re going to be a lottery pick or guaranteed to go top-15 or 18, the biggest mistake you can make right now as a college basketball player is going to the draft too early,” Dan Hurley said on The Dan Patrick Show this week. “Not staying long enough in college, because obviously the money situation.
“I think what I’ll tell Braylon and his family is number one, ‘Do you like college?’ Some players are in a rush to get to the NBA because they don’t like being a student. They don’t like being in a college program. College programs are run way differently than NBA teams, in terms of how we practice and how rigorous study hall and going to class and the coach being in charge of the operation. The world has changed. There’s not a pressure to go to the NBA now because of the money situation.
“Players like Braylon would probably make more money at UConn next year than if he was the No. 15 pick. Those are the things you have to weigh. How badly do I want to get out of college and get to the NBA?”
So there’s the pitch. Hurley once promised Mullins that if he left Indiana and came to UConn, he would play in the Final Four some 25 miles from his hometown of Greenfield. It happened. What can he promise now?
Incidently, the 15th pick, give or take one or two, is about where I am hearing Mullins would go if he entered the NBA Draft as a one-and-done. UConn has the resources to offer Mullins life-changing money to come back as a sophomore, certainly in the millions. But there is still more to this, thanks to Mullins’ forever shining moment in the NCAA Tournament.
NBA teams don’t draft players based on one shot, or one game, so his stock in the draft didn’t go up when he hit that 35-foot game-winner in the East Regional Final against Duke, nor did it go down with shots he missed in the NCAA Tournament. But Mullins’ earning potential as a college sophomore has changed … drastically.
Mullins was the name that rolled off everyone’s lips during the Final Four. If he were to come back and play for UConn next year, he would have the unique potential to be the face of college basketball, not just the face of UConn — of course, he would be that — but the face of the sport, coast-to-coast. We are not talking billboards on I-91 here. We are talking national endorsements of all kinds: Shoes, sports drinks, apparel. Who can begin to calculate how many millions would be involved in that?
Dom Amore: For Final Four-bound UConn men, Braylon Mullins’ miracle moment was 2 years in the making
This is a business decision, and Braylon Mullins might be the first test case of this type in the modern era. He could be the first player to wait on the NBA and return to college because it is actually a good business decision. This could mean leverage. If an NBA team really wants him, it might behoove them to make sure to draft and pay him enough to take a return to college off the table, and let him know of their intention to do so.
The face-of-the-sport endorsement opportunities will grow if UConn is back in the national championship picture next year. Right now, there’s no way of knowing who would be surrounding him on the team. There will be good players, but no Alex Karaban or Tarris Reed Jr., so if Mullins comes back he will have to do more for the Huskies to win. In the meantime, he will have a year to make his 6-foot-6, 196-pound frame get bigger and stronger, which he obviously needs to do.
One year ago, Liam McNeeley was faced with the decision and he went to the NBA. Drafted 29th, he spent much of his rookie year in the G League, which might lead some to say he should regret that decision. The Hornets signed him to a four-year rookie deal for $14 million, with $5.7 million guaranteed, so one can imagine he has few, if any regrets.
If Mullins is picked in the middle of the first round, he’d make in the neighborhood of $6 million as a rookie, maybe $10-12 million guaranteed on his first contract. If he comes back to college, there is risk. If he gets hurt, or does not make the big freshman-to-sophomore year leap, his stock could fall as he turns a year older. The influx of overseas talent will be different next year, which could push him lower in the draft. And if he does make a splash in the league, it would push his first mega-contract a year down the road.
Dom Amore: How Braylon Mullins’ pretty jump shot became the ‘bringer of rain’ for UConn men
So the financials are as complicated as Mullins and his family choose to see them. If he is told by a team picking in the top 10 it will take him, it’s probably not complicated. He goes. If he’s in that sweet spot, or no-man’s land midway through the first round or later, it’s a legit conversation.
Does Braylon Mullins like playing college basketball? Does he love UConn? Is he anxious to bet on his ability to get the Huskies back to the Final Four? If his answers are no, then he should reserve a table and start suit-shopping for the draft.
But herein lies the age-old battle of head vs. heart. If he uses his head, the millions-counters would say to move on to the pros. If he is happy and doesn’t want to mess with it, sees a one-in-a-lifetime chance at UConn in 2026-27 vs. another that will most likely still be there a year from now, then he’ll be back wearing No. 24 in blue and white and have his face on cereal boxes and sports drink bottles.
No one can make this decision for Braylon Mullins. One can only offer this advice: He should live his dream, not yours or mine, and do what makes him happy.
