Mark Pope responds to claims Kentucky offered a player $7-9M in NIL: ‘Don’t believe everything you read’
BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
Much has been made of Kentucky’s reported $22 million NIL budget this year.
But Wildcats head coach Mark Pope seems like he isn’t buying a report that the school offered forward Yaxel Lendeborg $7-9 million in the portal. Pope didn’t deny the figure when asked about it Thursday by reporters, instead dancing around the subject.
“We just start reporting what everybody else is reporting whether it has any validity or not,” Pope told reporters Thursday.
The 6-foot-9 Lendeborg, a first-team Associated Press All-America selection this year, told the AP he received a massive offer from Kentucky after entering the portal from UAB a year ago.
“They started the number with $7 to $9 (million),” he said. “They were pretty much going off on the route like, ‘We’ll pay him anything to get here.'”
Pope would not confirm or deny the specifics of whether the offer was made to Lendeborg, who utlimately chose Michigan, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“I know that you guys have to come out of hear with a headline and I’m not going to give it to you,” Pope said.
The Wildcats begin tournament play in the Big Dance on Friday against No. 10 Santa Clara.
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