LSU women’s basketball star and rapper Flau’Jae Johnson recently purchased a 20-acre tract of land in Atlanta, which the co-SEC Player of the Year indicated is an investment bigger than basketball or her burgeoning music career.
As Johnson told Boardroom, “This land represents more than just an investment for me—it’s about building something bigger than basketball or music. I want to create opportunities for my community and leave a legacy that shows young women, especially young Black women, that we can do it all.”
According to World Population Review, the average price of an acre of land in Georgia is $30,000, which roughly puts the price of Johnson’s purchase at $600,000.
According to Sportskeeda, Johnson’s NIL value is roughly $1.4 million, (although they note that figure currently leads women’s college basketball, Juju Watkins’ groundbreaking Nike and Gatorade deals will likely shift those valuations) and as depicted on Amazon’s NIL-focused docuseries on how LSU empowered its athletes, The Money Game: LSU, Johnson is focused on taking care of her family.
Johnson’s mother, Kia Brooks, also features prominently in the docuseries as her de facto agent and manager.
In 2023, Essence reported that Brooks had brokered approximately $2 million in NIL deals for Johnson with names like Puma, JBL, and Papa John.
At the time, Johnson told the outlet that it was important for her to carve out space for the Black girls and women who would be following her into the NIL space.
“It feels great to be one of the NCAA players that’s leading the NIL movement,” Johnson said. “You know, as a black woman, just as a woman in general, it’s so hard for us to dominate in these spaces and to be one of the top athletes it’s just something I worked for my entire life. I never thought it would come from basketball. I always thought it would be music. But to see that it’s happening in both is amazing.”
Johnson continued, “I think it’s important for little girls to see girls that look like them on big national campaigns like this—and it’s just important for women’s basketball. It’s important for the marketing of everything that we’re trying to do for women’s sports in general. So making history in that way, it feels amazing. And I just appreciate the opportunities that have been given to me.”
As Johnson comes off an off-season that has seen her star rise through a new EP featuring Lil Wayne, a performance at the ESPYS, and the spotlight of her recent attendance of the Oct.13 Saints-Falcons game, it is clear she is most likely going to be getting more of those opportunities.
However, as Johnson told SiriusXM College, those opportunities are contingent upon her success on the court.
“This is what I always tell people. They think like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re getting all these NIL deals. You’re getting all this money.’ But if I wasn’t doing somewhat good on the court, that wouldn’t be a thing,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, they still want to sponsor me because I’m a good athlete and we win.”
Johnson continued, “So I think you have to win in order to get the best deals. We won the national championship, [the] best deals of my life because we had so much exposure. I think you have to keep the main thing the main thing. You focus on that, and then everything else just seems to fall in line.”
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