NBA Execs Sound Off on NIL 'Killing European Basketball,' Today's Era and Yaxel Lendeborg

One NBA Western Conference executive believes that NIL is "killing European basketball," in the context of the NBA draft, per comments made to ESPN's Myron Medcalf.

"It does hurt the second round, I think," the executive told Medcalf regarding NIL and the draft. "So now you're saying, do you go to Europe and try to see if you can get a guy there? But the NIL stuff is killing European basketball as well."

Medcalf provided more insight on how the "development pipeline" has changed due to NIL.

"The evolving shape of the development pipeline has changed the way some teams evaluate prospects. More seniors have gotten looks as more players without lottery guarantees have exited the field in recent years. That means the draft, especially outside the lottery, is more of a crapshoot than it has been in the past."

These comments were amid a larger piece about the journey of Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg, who just led the Wolverines to the national championship and could very well be a lottery pick. Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has Lendeborg 14th overall to the Charlotte Hornets in his latest mock draft.

In essence, Lendeborg starred at UAB for two seasons (after playing at Arizona Western from 2020-2023) and had a chance to be a first round pick last year, but he withdrew from the draft and instead took a seven-figure NIL deal to play ball at Michigan for a year.

That worked out quite well for the player and team. Michigan won the national title, and Lendeborg was a consensus first-team All-American who averaged 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

Lendeborg's decision was wise on a few different levels. Not only does he stand to make a lot more money, first and foremost, but he further developed his game and is more prepared for the pros after getting a wealth of great experience in college.

Ultimately, NIL is convincing players to stay in school, get more money and then try to improve their draft stock down the road. Perhaps an NBA team might want to take a chance on a player with more tape and experience than a prospect playing overseas who doesn't have as much.

Brian Thornton, the Big 12's chief basketball officer, also spoke about how the game has changed.

"The only guys that are leaving now are guys that are guaranteed to be top picks," Thornton told Medcalf. "The NBA is getting a more developed product. They're getting a guy who is not the 19-year-old prospect anymore. They're getting a 22-year-old guy who has been through it, has played 150 college games and his body is mature. They're getting a guy who's ready to play now."

In 2024, five of the top 12 draft picks played overseas ball before heading to the NBA. Only six of them were from college (Ron Holland of the since-defunct G-League Ignite was the exception).

It's going to be much different now. The first round will be filled with freshman starts from the college level, although it'll also have some players like Ledenborg, who stayed in school, benefitted from NIL and raised their draft profile.

We'll see how it shakes out soon enough when the draft begins Tuesday.