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Eight of the 10 most-followed NCAA Elite 8 basketball players are women

29 March 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Impending legislation will allow student-athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL) through sponsored social media posts and other means.

Why it matters: If athletes had full control of their NIL rights, the top women's basketball players in this year's Elite Eight would have greater earning power than the top men.

By the numbers: Among the men's and women's Elite Eight teams, eight of the 10 most-followed players — and 10 of the top 20 — are women.

  • Listed below are the combined Twitter and Instagram follower counts for the 20 most-followed players, plus their estimated annual earnings, provided to Axios by athlete marketing platform Opendorse.
  • Opendorse's estimates weigh multiple factors, including engagement rate, market size (e.g. UCLA > Gonzaga) and overall sponsorship and athletic department revenue by school (e.g. Louisville > UConn).

Top 20:

  1. 🚺 Paige Bueckers, UConn: ~730k ($382k)
  2. 🚺 Hailey Van Lith, Louisville: 696k ($965k)
  3. 🚹 Jalen Suggs, Gonzaga: 325k ($495k)
  4. 🚺 Jaden Owens, Baylor: 295k ($310k)
  5. 🚺 Zia Cooke, South Carolina: 206k ($178k)
  6. 🚺 Cameron Brink, Stanford: 91k ($47k)
  7. 🚹 Adrian Nunez, Michigan: 83k ($70k)
  8. 🚺 Anna Wilson, Stanford: 80k ($41k)
  9. 🚺 Olivia Nelson-Ododa, UConn: 77k ($30k)
  10. 🚺 Brea Beal, South Carolina: 74k ($69k)
  11. 🚹 Quentin Grimes, Houston: 66k ($67k)
  12. 🚺 Destanni Henderson, South Carolina: 65k ($81k)
  13. 🚹 Evan Mobley, USC: 62k ($46k)
  14. 🚹 Johnny Juzang, UCLA: 55k ($53k)
  15. 🚹 Tyger Campbell, UCLA: 54k ($59k)
  16. 🚹 Moses Moody, Arkansas: 50k ($72k)
  17. 🚹 Drew Timme, Gonzaga: 49k ($40k)
  18. 🚹 Hunter Dickinson, Michigan: 49k ($33k)
  19. 🚹 Jaylen Clark, UCLA: 49k ($38k)
  20. 🚺 Caitlin Clark, Iowa: 42k ($11k)

The bottom line: The story of this year's March Madness has been the inequities between the two tournaments. Perhaps the story of the future will be the equal marketing opportunities for men's and women's stars.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.