Duke basketball legend Christian Laettner has grown fed up with the state of college athletics and believes name, image, and likeness compensation — or NIL — should be removed.
Thursday was the 32nd anniversary of Laettner’s iconic game-winning shot against Kentucky in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. The 54-year-old joined Mike Greenberg’s ESPN Radio show #Greeny to discuss the legacy of that shot.
Then, Laettner gave his thoughts on the current landscape of college sports and the ongoing NIL conversation.
“They gotta take out the NIL,” Laettner said. “They gotta wipe that out. They gotta change the transfer portal. I know everyone’s saying the horse is out of the barn and you can’t take stuff back, but how can you establish any type of culture at a school when you’re getting new kids every year? That would mean every year was like my freshman year at Duke; and you’re so much better your third, your fourth year when you’re under one system, one program, one coach, one specifically defined culture… I don’t know how the coaches do it in today’s game, and that’s why some of the better ones are starting to quit.”
Newly-retired coach Nick Saban has also expressed criticism for the current NIL system. Though he didn’t call for its outright removal, Saban did appear on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to regulate it.
Watch above via ESPN.
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