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Purdue's Braden Smith Makes NIL Announcement After Season

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Robert Marvi | Last updated Apr 24, 2025 9:46 PM ET

Braden Smith has become a rising star on the college basketball landscape over the last year or two. This past season, he took Purdue to the Sweet Sixteen round of the men's NCAA Tournament, where it suffered a heartbreaking two-point loss to Houston on a last-second layup by Milos Uzan.

He averaged 15.8 points and 8.7 assists a game and was named the Big Ten Player of the Year. He will be returning to Purdue this coming season for his senior year, and while he may have been a second-round pick in the NBA draft had he declared this year, he could perhaps improve his draft status during the 2025-26 campaign.

As part of his name, image and likeness (NIL) deal, Smith announced on his Instagram account that he's releasing his own line of T-shirts.

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Smith is undersized, especially by NBA standards, for the point guard position at six feet tall and 175 pounds. However, he has good instincts on the court, and he's a very good 3-point shooter — he shot 38.1% from that distance this past season after making 43.1% of his 3-point attempts during the 2023-24 campaign.

He has also improved on the defensive end, at least in one metric, by notching 2.2 steals per game during the 2024-25 season. He had gotten 1.2 steals a game as a freshman. He is also an outstanding free throw shooter who has a career average of 83.5% from the charity stripe.

Smith, who spent most of his childhood in Indiana, has been able to stay close to home by attending Purdue over the last three years.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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