Is this the beginning of the end for elite college basketball?
College basketball has been a rite of passage for most NBA prospects since the league’s inception but a decision by one of the county’s top prospects has caused quite a stir.
Consensus five-star recruit shooting guard Jalen Green has announced he will be signing a G League contract to forgo college and will become the new face of the league in an unprecedented move.
He has become the first elite prospect to sign up to the G League with the intention that the league can provide a viable and lucrative pathway for NBA hopefuls without having to go through the traditional college system.
Green, 18, is tipped to go first in the draft according to ESPN, will be eligible to earn a contract worth up to $700,000, and will have the option to return to college which was previously prohibited.
The revolutionary announcement comes after fans, coaches and players critiqued the one-and-done rule with some players such as potential lottery picks LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton choosing to play in Australia instead of following the necessary college path.
In a move that has been in the making for several years from grassroots level, the NBA’s proactive capture of a highly-touted high school prospect provides a massive blow to the college system creating an exciting new pathway for NBA hopefuls in the US.
Green has advised other top players to do the same if all works out in the G League, but will it work, and will prospects follow?
The not so beautiful game
While Commissioner Adam Silver attempts to distance the NBA from the controversial one-and-done rule, The National Collegiate Athletic Association has locked horns with the NBA at the prospect of losing its ticket-selling players.
The NCAA has been on record noting it wants to keep the restriction in place but the ‘face of the league‘ Lebron James joined Silver in being a vocal critic of college basketball’s practices with a long list of controversy.
In 2019, after the governor of California signed a bill allowing college athletes to earn money, an ecstatic James brought attention back to the controversial practice of NCAA athletes not being able to earn money.
“That 23 jersey would have been sold all over the place without my name on the back,” said James. “My body would have been on the NCAA game 2004. The [arena] would have been sold out… Me & my mom didn’t have anything.”
These quotes were made just after Zion Williamson — the highest touted highschool prospect since Lebron James — was embroiled in a scandal involving Nike’s alleged attempts to pay athletes to attend college basketball programs it sponsored.
James’ potential successor was subject to a claim by a lawyer named Avenatti who claimed Nike paid Williamson and his coach at Duke Mike Krzyzewski was not only aware of the payment, but has been part of such payments to players for years.
Avenatti went as far as to say Williamson’s mother Sharonda Sampson was also paid by Nike for “bogus consulting services” in 2016 when Williamson was sixteen.
More recently, the University of Duke caught headlines again just a few days ago involving Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum and Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal on Instagram live.
Tatum spoke to Beal on the social networking service with fans tuning in as Tatum stated he still would have gone to Duke University instead of taking the $500k Jalen Green will earn over a year in the G League.
The statement itself was harmless, but NBA All-Star Bradley Beal who was on the other end of the Instagram live refuted Tatum’s claims that Duke might be “the only stand-up school in the country” by saying “I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Perhaps closer to home for Bradley Beal, he was subject to an anonymous donor who paid for his college education because he was not offered an athletic scholarship — a donor who remains anonymous to this day.
After this interaction ended, Tatum was later quoted as being disappointed in the practice with the NCAA making money off player's names.
“It goes back to the NCAA thing about not being able to make money off your likeness,” said Tatum. “I think if you’re a top-ranked player and you want to host an autograph session at a local restaurant for an hour and a half you should be able to do that. That’s not accepting money from a school or a booster. That’s making money off your likeness.”
While everything appears to be amended or ‘squeaky-clean’ as far as the college system goes, you could argue the moves to ensure the G League becomes the leading pathway into professional basketball will provide a breath of fresh air in becoming more legitimized.
But is this just a temporary solution?
A new plan of action
The NBA’s attempts to create a new domestic pathway for elite talents were first realized after former NBA player Rod Strickland was hired for its G League pro path initiative.
It’s thought Rod Strickland who already had a positive reputation for grassroots initiatives spent over a year gathering information about the potential changes needed to be made for a viable pathway by communicating with families of top prospects.
The initiative was later made a priority by Adam Silver with the appointment of the new G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim and after seeing potential lottery picks LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton choose to play professionally oversees with a lucrative program in Australia.
Discussing prospects going overseas to Australia, Abdur-Rahim said to ESPN: “That’s a real program that the NBL has. It’s appealing. We have kids leaving the United States — Texas and California and Georgia — to go around the world to play, and our NBA community has to travel there to scout them. That’s counterintuitive.
“The NBA is the best development system in the world, and those players shouldn’t have to go somewhere else to develop for a year. They should be in our development system.”
Abdur-Rahim would later be vital in the search for a marquee player by using his connections with longtime agent Aaron Goodwin who Green signed to represent him.
Goodwin who represents several high profiled players in the NBA is arguably best known for being a facilitator in helping Lebron James and Dwight Howard transition into the NBA straight out of high school.
By signing a marquee player, Abdur-Rahim and Rob Strickland expect further players to explore playing in the G League with several top prospects expected to decommit to their chosen colleges and instead use the G League alternative.
How will it play out?
The changes will see the G League adopt closer models currently used in the European Basketball leagues with successful Euroleague players such as Luka Dončić or Kristaps Porziņģis entering the professional ranks earlier.
With seasoned pros arriving in the draft from Europe already, the NBA clearly view some prospects as NBA ready and who better to develop the NBA than the league itself.
Jalen Green will be joining a new expansion team rumored to be in California and will play a reduced schedule of about 10–20 games, fewer than the league’s usual schedule of 50 games.
In addition to a contract valued at $500,000, players will also be provided a full scholarship to college should that be an academic path a player chooses to go down.
Overall, NBA’s decision to build a team to accommodate its new face for the G League before he plays a single game in the NBA shows its commitment to its new development program and expanding the G League.
The G League since its inception has been viewed as the 2nd tier of NBA basketball but with less enthusiasm and often players having to work two jobs just to make ends meet.
With the increased attendance, viewership and attention brought on it by new prospects — who knows where it will go and who it can attract.
For Green? Lets say he has taken to the decision with extreme enthusiasm.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “I could have gone down other paths, but this one right here is leading me to my goal of playing in the NBA. And to make it out of Fresno is a big deal because a lot of people get sidetracked and caught up in stuff.
“But for what I’m doing, I would advise some of the top guys to do the same. If everything works out for me in the G League, I would definitely advise guys to take this approach.”
