Karter Knox, top 2024 high school prospect, leaves Florida over NIL laws

The top-rated senior basketball season in Florida is leaving the state for his senior season over its laws that bar high school athletes from profiting off of name, image and likeness.

Karter Knox is leaving Tampa Catholic (Florida) and signing with Overtime Elite, the league announced Monday. 

The 6-foot-6, 215-pound class of 2024 standout is the No. 7 player in the country and top-rated prospect in the state of Florida according to the 247 Sports Composite. 

The state of Florida is among the minority of states that do not allow high school athletes to profit off of their respective name, image or likeness.

Knox, the defending Florida 3A state player of the year, is also the younger brother of NBA player Kevin Knox II, a 6-11 small forward who starred at Kentucky and was picked ninth overall in the 2018 NBA Draft.

Tampa Catholic coach Don Dziagwa told Prime Time Preps Karter Knox stands to make a "significant amount of money" through NIL deals at OTE.

"Karter didn't really want to leave," Kevin Knox, Karter's father, told Prime Time Preps. "He wanted to try to become the school's all-time leading scorer and win a state title. If the state offered (NIL) opportunities, it would have been a much tougher decision."

In 2020, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 646 that allowed college athletes to profit off of NIL but excluded high schoolers.

The younger Knox helped Tampa Catholic to consecutive FHSAA state semifinal berths the last two seasons.

Overtime Elite is a professional league based in Atlanta that signs 16-to-20-year-old prospects to paid contracts as a pay-for-play alternative to the high school and college amateur model. 

The nature of Knox's deal with OTE is not immediately known, but he could have signed a deal that preserves his college eligibility. 

Knox is reportedly being pursued the heaviest by Kentucky and Louisville and has a long list of offers that includes Arkansas, Auburn and Florida State.

Founded in 2021 as an ambitious, for-profit alternative for some of the country's top amateur prospects Overtime Elite sent four of the top players in its inaugural class to the pros.

Twin brothers Amen and Ausar Thompson, who were originally from Oakland but played high school at Pine Crest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were taken back-to-back in the top five of the NBA Draft in June and OTE products Jazian Gortman signed a two-way deal with the Milwaukee Bucks and Jaylen Martin did the same with the New York Knicks.