Examining Lamont Butler’s buzzer-beater and its NIL impact

Given the stakes of San Diego State guard Lamont Butler’s pull-up, buzzer-beating jumper that gave the Aztecs a one-point win over Florida Atlantic in a national semifinal, the shot registers as one of the most consequential in men’s basketball history.

It was a true buzzer-beater – the shot left his hands with less than a second remaining and the clock hit double zeroes while the ball was in the air. It sent San Diego State to the national championship game. And the Aztecs were trailing by a point, meaning this wasn’t a risk-free shot from Butler, who didn’t have the prospect of five minutes of overtime if it didn’t fall.

The shot went through around 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday in Houston, giving San Diego State roughly 48 hours until the opening tip of the national championship game.

What did that shot from Butler, and all that comes with it, do for his marketability and NIL opportunities in the second tournament of the NCAA’s NIL era?

“After kind of getting out the elation of the shot, I went straight to work just texting as many people as I could, just trying to figure out ‘OK, how can we capitalize off of this?’” Deshaun Harris, the CEO of the agency Intrusive Sports that represents Butler, told On3.

Brands react quickly

Sunday night, Butler promoted Urban Outfitters on Instagram — Urban Outfitters “has Game Winning Apparel!” he wrote. Monday, the day of the national championship game, Butler announced on Instagram a partnership with Level Select, which is a company that sells therapeutic sports creams.

“When the shot happened, Level Select called me two minutes (later). I mean, they were still on the court when they gave me a call and said, ‘Hey, we got to get Lamont. Just go do it. Whatever it takes, get it done. We’ll pay up. Whatever it takes,’” said Dominyck Bullard, the CEO of Athletiverse, a platform that manages NIL campaigns. “Just having those good relationships in place – I think if you’re planning to kind of go off of the swing of things or play it by ear, you just can’t get anything done quick enough.”

Harris estimated “a good 15 companies,” both regional and national brands, inquired about potential partnerships with Butler over the weekend, not including some of the opportunities Bullard and Athletiverse sourced. Harris previously told On3 that Butler had nine paid partnerships before the Final Four.

Butler’s participation in the Urban Outfitters campaign was the product of a 15-minute photoshoot that took place Sunday night. A photographer met Butler at a private location in the hotel where San Diego State stayed, and the clothing Butler wore for the photoshoot was delivered to the hotel.

Harris recited the popular phrase “Keep the main thing the main thing” when describing how his family and representatives helped Butler capitalize on his marketing opportunities while he and his teammates simultaneously prepared for the national championship game.

“It was exactly that – ensuring that he got all of his film sessions out the way, all of his obligations to where we could fully take advantage of that 15-minute window to where his parents were there and a family liaison, Justin Downer, was there as well,” Harris said. “We spoke with them to arrange it and we got it done pretty quickly.”

“Boy ain’t waste NO time haha,” former teammate Jordan Schakel wrote in a comment on Butler’s Instagram photo.

His current teammates supported him too. “Best fit I ever seen,” wrote Micah Parrish. “Best fit you’ve ever put on,” wrote Miles Byrd. “Good fits gangy,” replied Darrion Trammell.

Harris went out of his way to compliment Butler’s parents, Lamont Sr. and Carmicha Butler. Harris understands the time commitments of being a men’s basketball player and the level of communication that’s best. His younger brother Dominick plays for Gonzaga.

“We have a group text between him and his dad, who’s a pivotal decision-maker in what he does. And, then, usually for all of our clients, if I’m calling you, that means it’s something serious,” Harris said, laughing.

‘His kind of payments have, I would say, 2x, 3x’

Harris and Bullard ensured the graphic was finalized for Butler’s partnership with Level Select so that all Butler had to do was approve the contract and post the photo on Monday with the desired caption. Harris and Bullard had been in contact for months, which allowed them to build what Harris called a great rapport. “He already had some deals ready,” Harris said of Bullard.

Bullard said the Athletiverse staff put together a list of four or five potential brand partners for Butler and teammate Matt Bradley that the players then could potentially select for a brand activation in less than 24 hours during the Final Four weekend.

“Credit to Deshaun, I mean he took my phone call. We were both at hotels in the middle of the night figuring this thing out,” Bullard said.

Harris said it can be difficult to activate a marketing campaign when there’s not a preexisting relationship with a company.

“The contract was already set in place, as well as the contract with Athletiverse,” Harris said. “It was already pretty much set in place. (There’s) a pre-contract template we have and we’re able just to feed it to his parents, he’s able to sign it. Both of his obligations literally took him probably a combined 20 minutes total as far as the photo shoot with Urban Outfitters or just the social activation with Athletiverse and Dominyck.”

Butler previously engaged in a paid partnership with San Diego Loyal SC, which competes in the USL Championship. The soccer club has since reached out regarding a potential appearance at halftime of a match this weekend.

“What we spoke about with those professional teams is a lot of people of his background don’t really cross over to soccer or rugby,” Harris previously told On3, “so it was cool to give other San Diego State students exposure to that sport and other people that just look like him as well.”

San Diego Loyal SC executives wanting to honor Butler is just one example of his potential upcoming opportunities to make public appearances or to speak to private groups.

“I just had a group of angel investors, actually, in San Diego ask to have Lamont come to speak at one of their events this summer,” Bullard said, laughing. “I think what you’re going to start to see as Lamont obviously jumps those social tiers is more athlete co-created content, this UGC, right, user-generated content. … In the future, I already know that we’ve got some asks to have Lamont come on a couple of YouTube videos, do more of these longform content events, which, of course, pay five to 10x what he was doing previously.”

Bullard teased an upcoming tour of San Diego State’s locker room, which would feature a few brand activations.

Harris described Butler as someone who is “a little bit picky” about the brand partners he selects because he wants to make sure they align with his personal values and those of his family.

“There’s a benefit to having a moment like that and being prepared for a moment like that and stepping up to that occasion,” Harris said. “His social ads – his kind of payments have, I would say, 2x, 3x, and then he gained about 5,000 followers overnight I think on both of his social media platforms, so about 10,000 total followers. His engagement was in the hundreds of thousands.

“I know SportsCenter put out some stuff on him, so I would say comfortably he probably had like 1.5 million eyes on Lamont Butler content. I think he’s looking to take advantage of that. On our end, there has been some national brands that have called, even down to like the San Diego Padres asking for a possible first pitch-type of thing.”