The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created in 2021 after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Jawed Halepota and Ken Wheeler of Johnnies Collective, who discussed what their group is about and what it has accomplished so far.
You 2 help run an NIL collective called “Johnnies Collective” that was launched last spring: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did you do it? Jawed: Yes, I am the president/founder. It was complicated to enter an emerging market with a lot of people claiming to be “authorities.” I have heard some horror stories from other Power 5 collectives and met some snake oil salesmen but luckily, we have great legal minds working on behalf of Johnnies Collective – led by Tahir Boykins and Ken Wheeler. NIL attracts a lot of people with mixed agendas but getting Metta World Peace onboard really helped our mission. Once we got rolling and brought on the right people it has gotten less complicated…for now. It is fun but will take time to get everyone making the rules on the same page (NCAA, federal government, state legislatures, etc.). Ken: I played basketball at Yale, my brother and business partner in JC is Bill Wheeler, Jr. who played at Manhattan College and is in their Hall of Fame. My nephew Aaron Wheeler played at Purdue and finished his college career at St. John’s. We just looked at the opportunities in NIL and helped another collective get acclimated with the players at St. John’s University when NIL became a reality. Recently, we were looking for the right group to continue our work in the NIL space and Johnnies Collective was just killing it in terms of their brand/relationships.
You have several St. John’s legends serving as advisors including Metta World Peace/DJ Kennedy: what do these former stars bring to the table? Jawed: Metta has the most professional accolades and is a special case. He is the partner who legitimized us and is more than just a brand ambassador: he has brought on multiple marketing agents to create deals that fit our business model. Artest Management Group is a business accelerator that helped us immensely: he is up there with Chris Mullin/Mark Jackson in terms of the best St. John’s basketball players ever and his name still resonates with the current players. He has a large social media presence, so it was a no-brainer to have him as an equity partner. He brought automatic interest to the company and is truly helpful: he is on team calls where he shares his real-life experience. DJ Kennedy, Sean Evans, Paris Horne, Dwight Hardy and Justin Brownlee are great guys who I went to college with and are long-time friends. They can look any player in the eye and share their experience about how to navigate playing pro anywhere in the world. Justin Brownlee is also a great story: he was in the D-League, then hired an agent who got him to The Philippines, and is a legend there who leads their National Team as a Filipino Citizen and is referred to as the Michael Jordan of The Philippines! They add 275K+ followers to our reach when they repost anything we send out on Instagram so having them as equity partners was an intricate part of our team-build.
Your focus is on basketball: how/why would you decide to open it up to other sports? Jawed: We have done some deals with women’s basketball/men’s golf athletes with some of our apparel because a rising tide lifts all ships. UConn did not succeed with just men’s basketball and Louisville was winning titles in multiple sports with new buildings and facilities going up regularly when Coach Pitino was there: that is what we as St. John’s supporters want. We are built like a Sports Marketing Agency to bring in endorsement deals that are more brand-oriented than sports-oriented plus the rules prohibit performance-oriented deals. We do not take donations and operate more like an ad agency by showing how far a brand can reach if they work with us. We are built to make money like a traditional sports franchise such as with digital fan engagement and events instead of taking donations.
What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? Jawed: We have in-house apparel (hat/t-shirt/shorts) and if you have to pay for a model to wear your gear, we figured we might as well pay our athletes to do that. Everyone has their eyes on basketball but in addition to having fun with this we want to raise all ships. We used the creativity of the team and were able to compensate everyone within the rules (even the women’s team photographer!): it was the most fun deal that we have done so far. It is all within an ecosystem using real-life activations that serve the resumes and portfolios of all involved.
Some fans might assume that companies want to partner with players who are All-Americans/NCAA champs: if you want an NIL deal then is it more important to be a great player on a great team or have a lot of followers on social media? Jawed: Definitely a combination of the 2. It never hurts to be great at your sport…but if you are a benchwarmer with 100,000 followers then brands will want to tap into that. If you are a star with only 1000 followers, then it is tougher to sell your brand based on the rules that are currently in place.
In 2016 you founded Baller Food to provide chefs for clients in the NFL/NBA/entertainment industry, and in 2020 you co-founded Liquid Royalty with Quenton Brown to help guide tech companies through the sports and entertainment business: how helpful is your business background to the functioning of the collective (if at all)? Jawed: Baller Food allowed me to work directly with NBA/NFL players who I still have great relationships with. I met Jaylen Brown going into his 2nd year in the NBA and was with him through his 7th year when he played in the Finals. I worked out with JB, his grandfather, and his older brother Quenton, who is also my business partner on multiple ventures including Johnnies Collective. I lived with Jaylen for multiple off seasons and experienced first-hand the faith, consistency, and hard work it takes to become an All-NBA and a MAX Contract player. Marcus Smart hired me as his chef because he wanted to work on his body during his first contract season…and he has done an amazing job: I have not heard any problems about his fitness in many years. I watched Duron Harmon grow from being that dude at Rutgers into a three-time Super Bowl champion with a ten-year career and I have also worked with the McCourty twins who are writing the book on transitioning from their playing careers. I was able to roll connections and experiences from all of that into Liquid Royalty with Quenton and connect tech founders through that space. We dropped an NFT at MSG with St. John’s on Johnnies Day 2023, which built our relationship with the athletic department. We were able to bring in a team to support Johnnies Collective and while it can be complicated at times it is extremely fun.
Last March the Red Storm hired Rick Pitino to be their head coach: how excited is everyone in New York to see what kind of impact the Hall of Famer will have? Jawed: Everyone is too excited! We won our subway alumni back who just want to see New York rocking again. ESPN was there the other day, 2 Chainz performed at our Midnight Madness, SLAM Magazine (who we have a great relationship with) is back covering St. John’s, etc. Father Brian Shanley, Director of Athletics Mike Cragg, the Athletic Department, and Board of Trustees all did their part and now it is time to rock! Everything is lined up for the program to win.
You are a fan of several teams including the 49ers/Bulls/Braves: which 1 of them do you think will be the next to win a championship? Jawed: A month ago I would have said the 49ers because if you can run the ball and play defense then you can win a championship. Jaylen and the Celtics also seem poised to win a title soon and I will always root for JB: no offense to the Knicks (who jump started my career with my first Baller Food client Kevin Seraphin).
People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? Jawed: I agree that donations should go to causes like that, but we are not built like that because we do not take donations. Companies spend money on advertising no matter the economy. The setting of New York City, Madison Square Garden, Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and Bethpage Golf Course as a few of our home venues as well as 340 student athletes from diverse backgrounds and nationalities can be very attractive to any brand interested in paying for endorsements. Ken: I think it is great that the NCAA got to the point of finally compensating athletes. At a recent dinner Coach Pitino said that his players are no longer viewed as amateurs but rather professionals. They come to college certainly to get a degree, but it is great that they can also participate in the upside of NIL, which they could not do as of a couple of years ago. That is why I got involved: while student-athletes are positioned differently compared to when I played in the Ivy League, the reality still exists that they will spend a good portion of their time playing sports while fulfilling their responsibilities as students. I believe it was time that they shared in the multi-billion-dollar revenue stream that flows through the NCAA.
Earlier this year we saw a basketball team’s season suspended (New Mexico State) and a football team’s coach fired (Northwestern) due to hazing: how concerned are you about entering contractual relationships with teenagers who might end up behaving badly? Jawed: My short answer is no. Ken: At the end of the day most of these players have trusted advisors. Our job is to get them ready for the real world: many guys are making 6-figures and as a student-athlete there are a lot of eyeballs on them. When you are representing your family/university you just try to do the right thing. These incidents are more the exception than the rule and the majority of student-athletes are living up to their responsibility as upstanding citizens.