In an age when many college athletes earn money through NIL, NC State forward DJ Burns Jr. has gone a different route.

The senior owns two vending machines, and he explained his side hustle while appearing on Pardon My Take on Monday.

"There's a guy who played at Auburn named Josh Dollard," Burns said. "He's from the Charlotte area, and we used to train with this trainer named Gabe Blair. Phenomenal guy. I was just talking to him about some things I went through and we were just talking about, what are ways to make money outside of basketball so you're not like one-dimensional as a person. That was one of the things he showed me and I took after it."

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NC States DJ Burns owns vending machines as a side hustle <a href="">

While Burns can enjoy the cash flow from his vending machines, he refrains from eating the snacks inside to stay in basketball shape.

"I'm gonna be honest, I can't eat what's in my vending machine," Burns said. "But it sells well for sure."

Burns also created his own clothing line in partnership with the Pack of Wolves NIL Collective, but owning a few vending machines on the side seems like a great way to bring in some cash while also learning some valuable business lessons.

Burns has a more important task at hand this week as No. 11 NC State takes on No. 2 Marquette in the Sweet 16 on Friday.

The Wolfpack had an incredible run to end the regular season, winning the ACC championship against North Carolina to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. NC State handled No. 6 Texas Tech in the first round before beating No. 14 Oakland in the Round of 32. Burns put up 16 against Texas Tech before dropping 24 points and 11 rebounds against Oakland.