TurboTax is Bacot's Latest, and Most Visible Venture

CHARLOTTE – Perhaps no college basketball player of the still-new NIL era has cashed in as much as North Carolina’s Armando Bacot.

Studying in UNC’s prestigious Kenan Flagler Business School, Bacot has a head for making money, and the personality and star power to go with it.

His latest enterprise is garnering the fifth-year All-America even more notoriety, as his TurboTax commercial is running seemingly non-stop during the NCAA Tournament.

It features the 6-foot-11 Bacot getting a burrito at a local restaurant in Chapel Hill, and it morphs into him needing help with his taxes given his success generating income through Name, Image, and Likeness.

“People have been starting to see it more,” Bacot said last week, when asked how it’s being received by friends and family. “I knew it would be a surprise. I didn’t tell nobody that I shot the commercial. It was coming, I just wanted to see everybody’s reaction when they saw it.”

Shot at Que Chula Craft Tacos & Tequila Bar on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, Bacot said the filming occurred in mid-February.

For those who know Bacot aside from seeing him as Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder and second all-time scorer, it appeared as if he struggled not laughing. That Bacot smirk was just there enough to see it during the commercial.

“Yeah, I had to freshen up some,” he said about being in front of the camera in that manner. “I hadn’t acted in a minute, so I had to channel my inner Charles Barkley and kind of get it going.”

Bacot has experience acting. And he’s been interviewed in so many mediums and stages, it comes naturally to him. But, acting in front of people he doesn’t know too well, wearing excessive, caked-on makeup, and trying to get the shot done on an off day during the season was enough to challenge the Tar Heel.

“Obviously, I did the thing with Outer Banks, that was fun,” Bacot said. “And the commercial with Turbotax, we’ll see where it goes. I told myself I didn’t know if I was going to do any stuff like that, but Turbotax, it was good and they paid me good. So, I was like, ‘yeah, I’ll do it.’”

TurboTax is one of many businesses that have made Bacot a wealthy just-turned 24-year-old. Among the big payers include Jimmy’s Seafood, CapTech, Frosted Flakes, Topps, Town and Country Farms, to name some.

Sportskeeda.com reported Bacot’s net worth is now $5 million, and his annual earnings each of the last three seasons has reportedly ranged around $1 million at the minimum.

As for TurboTax running nationally and during a tournament he dominated two years ago, and one he hopes to again, with the top-seed Tar Heels taking on 4-seed Alabama in the Sweet 16 of the West Region on Thursday in Los Angeles, Bacot keeps taking things in stride, finding humor in nearly everything, along with a tad bit of competitiveness.

He didn’t tell anyone the TurboTax ad was coming because he wanted to sit back and appreciate the ranges of reaction.

“I knew everybody was going to think it’s hilarious,” he said, smiling. “It was great.”

Bacot is great for business, with TurboTax the latest brand to hitch its identity to Carolina’s rebounding machine.