{"id":679565,"date":"2026-03-26T05:47:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/679565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T05:47:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:47:41","slug":"south-carolina-womens-basketball-raven-johnson-and-aflac-team-up-for-nil-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/679565\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina women’s basketball: Raven Johnson and Aflac team up for NIL deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NIL world moves fast these days. On Sunday, Dawn Staley told a story about Raven Johnson, and by Wednesday, Johnson had an NIL sponsorship.<\/p>\n

Staley has endorsed the insurance company Aflac since 2022. She first appeared in commercials with former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, and has later appeared in her own commercials with the Aflac Duck.<\/p>\n

Aflac also sponsored South Carolina\u2019s Oui-Play game in Paris to open the 2023-24 season, and Staley has partnered with the company to \u201cconfront equity issues in women\u2019s college basketball head-on\u201d as well as visit with sick children in the hospital (the necklaces Staley wears are the product of one of those visits).<\/p>\n

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women\u2019s Basketball<\/a>! \ud83c\udfc0<\/p>\n

When Aflac first approached Staley about appearing in commercials, Staley\u2019s only requirement was that she get all the same perks as Krzyzewski. Aflac agreed, and after Krzyzewski retired, Staley became the focus of the commercials that run during the basketball season.<\/p>\n

So when Staley joked to her players during the first round of the tournament that the reason timeouts are longer in the tournament is that players are getting paid now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them that they\u2019re 30 extra seconds on these timeouts,\u201d Staley said. \u201cI said (it\u2019s) because y\u2019all make so much NIL money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senior point guard Raven Johnson wasn\u2019t going to let her coach, the one who might actually be appearing in that extra commercial, off the hook.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaven got up from her seat, came over to me, and said, \u2018Aflac,\u2019 and walked away,\u201d Staley said. \u201cI mean, where did she come up with it? She is quick with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joke went viral, and the Aflac account on X, formerly known as Twitter, tagged Staley and said, \u201cTell Raven to call me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHide the Duck first, please,\u201d Staley replied.<\/p>\n

The next day, Monday, Johnson was asked if an NIL deal with Aflac was in the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the duck? The duck doesn\u2019t even speak English, right? I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. After Staley reminded Johnson that the duck says \u201cAflac,\u201d Johnson replied, \u201cI know, but that\u2019s it. That\u2019s all I know. Are we teaming up? Oh, yeah, sure. If (Staley\u2019s) in it, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days later, it was official.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 GamecocksW newsletter: WBB coverage delivered straight to your inbox<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Johnson posted pictures of herself wearing a shirt with Aflac\u2019s slogan, posing with a stuffed duck in front of the statue of Dawn Staley in downtown Columbia. \u201cY\u2019all better ask about it at work\u2026.I did and Aflac answered,\u201d was the caption.<\/p>\n

Johnson is now the third Gamecock to appear in an Aflac ad. Allisha Gray appeared in a commercial last year after she swept the Skills Challenge and Three-Point Contests at the 2024 WNBA All-Star Weekend. She picked up a $55,000 bonus from Aflac as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NIL world moves fast these days. On Sunday, Dawn Staley told a story about Raven Johnson, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,465],"class_list":{"0":"post-679565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-womens-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116293905704031229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}