"The fire goes out really fast": Eli Ellis opens up on the importance of building a brand in the NIL space, on Flau’jae Johnson's podcast

Modified Dec 19, 2024 11:35 GMT

No. 68 recruit and South Carolina commit, Eli Ellis, joined LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson in a YouTube video posted by Best of Both Worlds with Flau'jae on Dec. 13. While Johnson spoke about her deal with Unrivaled, Ellis talked about building a brand through NIL deals.

Johnson discussed how players are often scrutinized for taking advantage of NIL deals, but also emphasized the significant platform these deals provide for high school and college athletes to build their brands. Eli Ellis shared his perspective on why players should leverage NIL deals through their social media presence:

"I started this academy, it's called LS Academy and I teach kids how to grow social media and also teach them about basketball and training, all this stuff," Ellis said (9:19 - 10:10).

He further discussed the questions his students asked in the academy:

"In the academy, the biggest question they have is how do I deal with what my friends say about me posting and I'm like that's the least of your worries, that's the last thing; about what other people post."

Eli gave an example to justify the case:

"What other people thought about me posting my corny TikToks or whatever I posted, I would not be where I am now. A lot of college athletes don't realize if you could just spend 10 to 15 minutes a day making some content, 30 minutes a day, it's worth hundreds of thousands a year."

"As you said, the fire goes out really fast so when you have a blow game you better be posting something a day or right after that game"

The Overtime Elite all-time leading scorer won the league's MVP award as he averaged 33.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 5.1 apg and 1.8 spg last season. The four-star recruit holds the 19th spot among shooting guards and ranks third overall in North Carolina

Eli Ellis talks about South Carolina commitment

Eli Ellis had offers from programs including College of Charleston, Winthrop, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, among others. However, the Hickory, NC, native announced his decision to join the Gamecocks on Nov. 15. While talking to On3, Ellis stated why he joined South Carolina:

“I chose South Carolina because my whole life I’ve been an underdog,” Ellis said. “That’s where I thrive and that’s when I’m my best. South Carolina are the underdogs and everybody loves an underdog. I also chose USC because of how much it reminded me of home. On my visit it felt like I had to go there.”

Eli will join EJ Walker, Grank Polk and Hayden Assemian from the 2025 Class at Lamont Paris' side.