In efforts to challenge the NCAA's stronghold of elite basketball talent, the NBA and the G League is creating an alternative to the one-and-done route for the best American prospects, G League president Malcolm Turner told ESPN's Jonathan Givony.
As part of a newly formed “professional path” to start in the summer of 2019, the G League will offer “select contracts” that would be worth $125,000 to elite prospects who are at least 18 years old, but not yet eligible for the NBA Draft.
This provision would target recent or would-be high school graduates that would usually go on to play one year of college basketball, giving them a six-figure salary, as well as the opportunity to benefit from an NBA infrastructure, and a plethora of development programs “geared towards facilitating and accelerating their transition to the pro game,” according to Turner.
Free of the restrictions of the NCAA's amateurism rules, players will be able to hire agents, show off their likeness and pursue marketing deals from sneaker companies, which could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in endorsement opportunities to some of these top prospects.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski had his doubts to if this avenue is one players would go for, considering the G League does not have the spotlight that Division I college basketball does, considering the lack of exposure on national and regional TV, as well as a higher level of competition.
The G League is very much the minor leagues, full of early-connecting flights, long bus rides and small gyms, while big-time colleges are still afforded the luxuries of private jets and full fervent crowds. It will be interesting to see how this impacts everyone, from the NCAA to the NBA to the G League, involved.
This new G League provision could be a route for those in dire need of compensation coming off of high school, or even those who could see themselves having academic problems at the next level, hopeful to skip that altogether in return for a fully-immersive experience into the pro game.
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