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Enes Kanter and Emmanuel Mudiay of the New York Knicks both offered different opinions on the NBA's new G League policy, which would allow top high school prospects to ink $125,000 contracts.
Kanter shared how he turned down a lucrative offer in Turkey — his home country — to play for Kentucky. However, as it turned out, he was declared ineligible as a college athlete since he received some $33,000 from Turkish professional basketball club, Fenerbahçe. Kanter was picked third overall in the 2011 NBA Draft.
For Kanter, if faced with the same circumstance, the Knicks big would enter the G League, despite the unglamorous lifestyle. As per Stefan Bondy of NY Daily News:
“Yeah, because I couldn’t play college basketball,” said Kanter, who enrolled at Kentucky but was ruled ineligible because he previously played professionally overseas. “So I would play one year in the G League and go from there.”
He added:
“The NCAA rules are terrible. Write that.”
Mudiay, for his part, had a different view, pointing out that his compensation worth $1.2 million is vastly different from the G League salary pegged at $125,000. Mudiay pointed out that it would depend on the prospect's current situation.
“125 is different from 1.2,” he said. I would stick with my choice but it depends on the situation. Everybody’s situation is different. I think for some people it can be good (to go to the G League), for some people I think it’s better to go to college. My situation was different. We don’t all go through the same stuff.
Right after high school, Mudiay opted to skip college and play for Chinese ball club Guangdong Southern Tigers. After one year overseas, he was picked 7th overall in the 2015 NBA Draft. He added that if a player feels that he's a top prospect, then he might as well play college ball for a year:
“I feel like if you got a chance to go to college and you can play through college basketball and you know you have a potential to be one-and-done, you might as well go to college.”
