Tounde Yessoufou, once viewed as a potential first-round pick, has withdrawn from the NBA draft and will transfer to St. John’s for his sophomore season.

The 20-year-old wing secured a lucrative NIL deal from the Red Storm, with basketball insider Adam Zagoria reporting the agreement was worth “close to” $6MM.

Yessoufou spent his first college season at Baylor, making 34 appearances for the Bears during the 2025/26 campaign.

The Benin native averaged 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.6 assists per game across those appearances, posting a shooting slash line of .465/.293/.746.

For context, $6MM would be roughly equivalent to the first-year salary of the 11th overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft.

Unlike NIL deals, rookie scale contracts are guaranteed for the first two years, with team options in years three and four.

In other basketball news, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report has updated his ranked list of potential free agents, featuring Heat wing Norman Powell at number 10, Sixers forward Kelly Oubre Jr. at number 20, and Cavaliers forward Dean Wade at number 30 among 70 listed players.

Marves Fairley, who claims he paid Terry Rozier as part of an illegal gambling scheme, pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal court on Thursday to seven felony charges stemming from two separate cases.

Fairley also admitted to paying a Chinese Basketball Association player to influence a pair of CBA games in March 2023, with prosecutors identifying that player as Antonio Blakeney, a former NBA guard charged with wire fraud in January.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, appearing on the Pat McAfee Show, announced plans to implement an automated AI system to review out-of-bounds calls rather than leaving decisions entirely to on-court officials.

Silver suggested that all “so-called objective calls” would eventually fall under that automated review system, signalling a significant shift in how the league handles officiating decisions.

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