That finally changed when NIL arrived. Now, the players can finally legally get paid for their name, image, and likeness. Of course, that didn’t suit well with some powerhouses.

However, as much as some old-school fans and coaches might not be much of a fan of this new trend, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino believes there’s no point in complaining.

Rick Pitino says there’s no point in complaining about NIL

“I felt the change was here, and quitting, resigning, complaining is of no value,” Pitino said on ‘The Herd.’ “You have to win the day. You have to get the job done, and I just felt that ‘Okay, we’re going to use it to the best of our abilities at St. John’s.’ So, we’re an urban school; we’re a computer school; we play in Madison Square Garden as our home court: How can we maximize our potential by embracing the NIL and the transfer portal? We went away from high school basketball players, although we have taken one or two to develop, but by and large we’ve gone after older players.”

At the end of the day, everybody will just have to adapt and adjust. Programs that fail to do so will be caught behind and struggle until they decide to do something about it.

Everything changes at one point, and college basketball isn’t the exception to that rule. Purists may not like it, but there’s not much anybody can do about it anyway.

That’s why he’s one of the most authorized voices to talk about recruiting, the transfer portal, and this NIL era and frenzy that the NCAA is going through right now.

In a recent appearance on WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata, Pitino shared his honest thoughts on the current state of affairs. Contrary to most of his colleagues, he’s actually all for the players making money.

Rick Pitino supports NIL, not so sure about transfer portal

“I’m not anti-NIL. Tom Izzo is anti-NIL, Jay Wright was, Tony Bennett was anti-portal. I’m not anti that at all. I felt that we’ve been making millions of dollars all those years. The players should make money, so I’m for that,“ Pitino said.

However, in regards to the players being able to move between programs left and right with the new transfer portal rules, he’s not 100% sold on the idea just yet:

“Now I’m not crazy about the transfer portal, because guys, I have a center, backup center from USC [Vince Iwuchukwu] that I think is going to be a very good player someday, but it’s going to take time and effort. Well, he’s going to say, ‘Well, look, if I’m only playing 10 minutes a game. I’m going to go transfer; they’re promising me 30 minutes a game.’ So that part I don’t like. But as far as the players being paid, I don’t have a problem with that,” he added.

College basketball is transitioning into a new era, and as such, everybody will have an opinion on what’s going on. And as much as not fighting through adversity and chasing an easier path to the court somewhere else might be detrimental to a player’s character, it was only right that they were financially compensated for their efforts.