CJ McCollum, the veteran NBA guard and president of the National Basketball Players Association, recently opened up about what it was like to be a top draft prospect in the pre-NIL era — and why the lesson he learned back then still applies to players making millions today.
McCollum left Lehigh University in April to prepare for the draft, which meant he was no longer receiving any support from the school. This was before Name, Image, and Likeness deals existed, so there was no path for a college athlete to earn money off their own stardom. The only income he had lined up was a modest endorsement deal with an energy drink brand — worth $12,000.
That $12,000 had to last him until November, when his rookie contract kicked in. Rather than treating it as short-term money to burn through, McCollum rationed it: two “bands” a month, or roughly $2,000, stretched across seven months.
“Which was cool with me,” McCollum said, looking back on the stretch. He wasn’t complaining about the system — he was making a broader point about financial discipline.
“Obviously millions of dollars is enough,” he said. “But back in the day before NIL we didn’t get paid until November, and I didn’t get paid at Lehigh. I left school in April for pre-draft. So I lived off a $12k energy drink deal until November… The point is that people with money need to budget, and people without it need to budget too.”
The Bigger Point
McCollum’s comments land at an interesting moment. NIL has fundamentally changed the economics of college sports, giving athletes the chance to earn real money — sometimes significant money — before they ever turn pro. For a top prospect today, the gap McCollum described simply wouldn’t exist in the same way.
But his underlying argument isn’t really about the mechanics of that gap. It’s about a mindset: budgeting isn’t a symptom of not having enough money. It’s a discipline that matters at every income level, whether you’re stretching $12,000 across seven months or managing a nine-figure NBA career.
It’s a theme that echoes through a lot of athlete financial cautionary tales. Studies and reporting over the years have pointed to a striking number of professional athletes who face financial distress within just a few years of retirement — not because they didn’t earn enough, but because spending habits never adjusted to match the reality that career earnings are front-loaded and short-lived.
McCollum, who has built a reputation as one of the more business-savvy voices in the league — he’s dabbled in coffee roasting, media, and now union leadership — is essentially arguing that the habits that got him through that lean stretch before his rookie deal are the same habits that have served him since. The dollar amount changes. The need for a budget doesn’t.
Why It Resonates
The quote works because it cuts against a common assumption: that budgeting is something you do out of necessity when money is tight, and something you can abandon once you “make it.” McCollum’s framing suggests the opposite — that budgeting is a permanent skill, not a temporary survival tactic, and that treating it as optional once the money arrives is exactly how athletes end up broke a few years after retirement.