It was a heck of a March Madness run for McNeese State as the Cowboys won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game before losing early Saturday to Purdue in the second round. But it’s been an even bigger and more profitable one for their 22-year-old student manager, Amir Khan, who quickly found himself a social media star.
For those who don’t know who “Aura” Khan is, he’s the short guy who has gone viral multiple times in recent weeks for his hype-up videos for the McNeese State basketball program.
Donned in flashy yellow jumpsuits, Khan can routinely be seen walking the team out while holding a giant boombox, or doing a walk-out rap song to get the team going. For a volunteer that usually “rebounds the ball during shootarounds and wipes up wet spots on the court,” Khan has been CASHING in his new-found celebrity run, inking multiple six-figure NIL deals from the likes of TickPick, TurboTax, and even Topps, which gave him his own trading card this week.
Khan Sells Out to Spike Lee?
Yet on Saturday during the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Khan wasn’t sitting on the team bench. Nor was he with the team’s families and school officials.
Instead, he was sitting across the court next to Spike Lee of all people, which was fun at first until McNeese fans started posting on social media that he was selling out while his team was down double digits to Purdue.
If they ever needed Khan to hype them up and motivate them, one would think that would be the time.
Across social media, McNeese fans were questioning why Khan was with the actor/director during the team’s biggest game ever, while others went so far as to call Khan a fraud.
Of course, members of the sports media completely overlooked this as they gleefully tweeted photos of the two together with their “OMG! Khan is with Spike Lee” tweets that were just as foolish as Khan’s decision.
McNeese State Losing Head Coach Will Wade
It will be interesting to see what happens next for Amir Khan. He obviously has his NIL deals, but with McNeese out of the tournament, does the school continue to utilize him as much as it would have if the Cowboys had advanced to the Sweet 16?
More importantly, with McNeese State now officially losing head coach Will Wade, who signed to coach North Carolina State, does Khan stay with McNeese, or does he head West to Raleigh with Wade? Where does his loyalty lie, and wouldn’t it be extremely awkward and cringe if he suddenly is cheering for N.C. State the same way he did for McNeese?”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT AMIR KHAN’S MARCH MADNESS VIRAL RUN? TWEET ME: @TheGunzShow
