“I want to reduce financial stress for athletes by providing immediate and guaranteed money,” says Kendrick Perkins, who has launched a new venture focused on maximizing name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities for young athletes. While he claims the venture aims to empower them in a rapidly evolving market, not everyone is on board with this idea. Is it truly in the best interest of young athletes?

The veteran analyst Dan Dakich, known for his no-filter takes, recently unloaded a fiery rant, absolutely tearing into Perkins’ NIL venture called “Nilly.” In case you haven’t heard already, Perkins and a Wall Street veteran, Chris Ricciardi, teamed up to offer athletes upfront payments in exchange for a cut of their future NIL earnings. It will be the first and only company offering cash advances on college NIL earnings.

Perkins believes, “You have so many athletes and their parents who are struggling day-to-day.” Hence, they are taking a “gamble” on the potential earnings of the student-athlete in the NIL space. However, the benefit is that the student-athlete gains financial security, allowing them to avoid feeling pressured to rush into deals.

But, the commentator is not at all in its favor, calling Perkins all kinds of names—

“big stupid” and “idiot.” “You’re a high school kid. You got NIL money. The big stupid Kendrick Perkins is trying to prey on you now,” he said in a YouTube video. He compared it to high-interest loans, saying, “If you go into business with… Kendrick Perkins, you get what you deserve.”Talking about business, Kendrick Perkins and Ricciardi’s brainchild offers upfront payments—ranging from $25,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars—to athletes in exchange for a slice of their future NIL income. However, Nilly keeps the exclusive rights to use or sell the athlete’s NIL for up to seven years and takes between 10% and 50% of their future earnings. 

According to Ricciardi, it’s

‘purely a licensing deal,’ but Dakich criticizes their whole business plan by stating, “I mean, you need to be in business with serious people doing serious things.” But he isn’t the only one not on board with the idea.

Kendrick Perkins’ venture hasn’t convinced a few

Perkins claims that his goal is to give athletes financial security upfront so they don’t have to worry about making money immediately. But Dakich warns, “I’ll bet you money within three years, this thing is either gone, screwed up.” He joins a couple of experts in addressing concern. 

Chris Peterson, a law professor, and Michael Haddic Jr., CEO of Scout, were two others to describe it as, ‘taking advantage of young athletes’ who haven’t thought about the long-term implications. 

And This isn’t the first time a deal like this has caused controversy. In 2018, Francisco Mejía, a Major League Baseball player signed a similar deal with Big League Advance (BLA) when he was struggling financially. He later sued them, saying the contract was unfair and locked him into giving away too much of his future earnings. Hence, Courtney Altemus, co-founder of Advance NIL, advises avoiding long-term agreements. “They don’t understand it until they see the numbers,” she said. 

Nilly has signed 20 athletes so far from college and high school, for whom Perkins says, Nilly will help open the doors to the opportunities he wishes he had in his time.