#1 player in 2020 (basketball) Jalen Green going pro immediately according to ESPN
Todd wasn't the first and he won't be the last. Hopefully this is the guy that makes the NCAA seriously reconsider the way it does things. Like Brian wrote, college basketball is far more interesting with guys like Zion Williamson than without.
Very interesting setup. So he's going to be a part of a separate G-League "development" team consisting of veterans/mentors and other recent high school grads that would only normally play 12 or so regular season games. I wonder if he would've considered only playing 12 regular season games under the usual circumstances.
From Shams Charania:
Jalen Green’s NBA G League deal is expected to be in range of $500,000 and an ability to reach more with endorsements, appearances and education, sources told @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1250832856429010946
For a potential OAD, the G League is an infinitely better option now.
ASU better hope Josh Christopher doesn't hear about this. He'd be gone for sure. After reading about how his family views things and how they're more concerned with their #brand than anything else, he'd be crazy not to take advantage.
A G league team with Green, Todd, and Christopher would be interesting to follow, at the very least.
Todd is joining Green now on the new G League team in LA. Curious if he'll get the same 500k + deal as Green.
Maybe Dickinson gonna do the same ...
He already signed. Nothing to worry about.
He signed a NLOI, meaning he can't go to another school in the fall. Nothing prevents him from going and playing pro somewhere as far as I know.
You are right, but the Michigan recruiting folks expect him to enroll FWIW.
You mean the same recruiting folks who expected Josh Christopher to enroll???
There’s already a thread on this topic.
Ah, shoot. I always make this mistake. It's why I avoid posting to the board more than once a year!
Honestly though, I feel like my thread title is better. It's more descriptive and I think Jalen Green's name is recognizable enough to include it.
Just signed a contract for $500,000. That's going to be hard to compete with...
Just announced, Isaiah Todd is going to the G League as well. Even if we pay athletes, couldn't pay more than the G League.
It's not just the 500k, these guys can sign shoe deals and endorsements right out of the gate. Jalen Green is rumored to get a 7 figure shoe deal at some point later this year. That is insane and it highlights just how silly the NCAA's current structure is. Especially for players with the talent of Jalen Green or Zion Williamson. Who says Zion couldn't have signed a 7 figure shoe deal out of high school too?
Did Christopher sign his LOI yet? I can't believe he would go to college for a year instead of doing this. That Quinn article didn't mention much about educational opportunities, so why not grab the cash and start Jaygup Ent?
Yep, so much for paying players/"student athletes" in college.
Jalen Green, more like Shea Patterson.
The NBA has been moving towards a European-style academy system. Slowly, but moving in that direction. It would not shock me if 10-15 years from now, players like Green and Todd and Emoni Bates don’t play HS basketball or go to a regular high school and instead sign up for the Lakers youth academy.
Either that or they'll be one and done in HS. Might not take 10-15 years, more like 5-10 yrs.
Getting a 5-star rating means you get to pass NCAA basketball and go pro and get paid. Note to Juwan Howard; recruit 4-stars from now on.
Recruit 4 stars and the right 5 stars. Would be dumb to give up on 5 stars. Because as of now the vast majority still go to college.
If we're trying to compete with $500K salaries, forget it. Just let the basketball/football kids go pro whenever they want or at least let them be draft eligible and teams hold their rights for a year.
I still have yet to see a kid that could go straight to the NFL from high school. I doubt that will ever happen in our current iteration of football
Probably not. But I say open the doors for these kids and let the pro leagues give them a dose of reality.
This is just Kentucky and Duke paying players who don’t choose them to not play in the NCAA. :p
I don’t see any way that Emoni Bates goes to college with this G league option. He’d easily get endorsements up to 10 million a year.
There are 28 G League (short for Gatorade, the league sponsor) teams in the NBA's minor league system, and the NCAA has never fought with it over its development since 2001 when it started with 8 teams and was called the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) because it recognized that the corruption within the college game was mostly the result of young players enticed, influenced or paid under the table while awaiting the mandatory 19-year-old age requirement for the pro draft.
That left a loophole in age eligibility leading to younger prep star players forced to consider a year in college or playing overseas before becoming draft age.
In the last two years, the NBA has raised salaries for most players who sign with teams in the G League, and it is now offering a $125k Select Contract salary to those elite players who are identified as such under their newly created pro pathway program.
These players cannot have been previously eligible for the draft, aren't eligible to play in the NBA regardless of their ability, and must sign with the G League. The program offers off-court scholarship and mentorship benefits and until last October, when it began, failed to indicate how these players would be placed on league team rosters.
That's because even though each team is affiliated with an NBA team franchise, none own the rights of these players until they are actually drafted. And because these players couldn't self-assign themselves, at least three who thought of signing with the league last year opted instead to play pro ball in Australia.
Again, most of the players who play in the G League are those who have already played college ball, exhausted college eligibility and were either drafted or not drafted and then failed to make an NBA roster. Michigan is well-represented in the league with both Zak Irvin and Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman.
I had read that NBA GMs were not happy about removing the one and done rule because you just couldn't properly scout kids in high school so maybe this is their compromise to keep the one year rule but also allow kids to get paid.
Interesting -- I didn't expect the G-League to be able to offer salaries that high. Obviously the meat of his deal is in the shoe sponsorship, but it'll be interesting to see.
Also looks like Isaiah Todd will be joining him instead of going overseas: https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1250837290819207168
College hoop bluebloods can't compete with $500K salaries. If Kentucky and Kansas suddenly become really good in football, we'll know where the freed up bag money went.
Is college basketball really better with Zion Williamson? He played one year and didn't make his team any better than the historic norm for Duke. Why is it good that Kentucky flips their entire roster every 1-2 years? Why is it better that a few teams play by different rules than the rest of the country? Was it better for Zion that he played at Duke for a year and made $0 (let's pretend, anyway)? I think the G-League is a great solution. Don't forget, NCAA doesn't have much of a say in this debate. NBA changed their rules to block teams from drafting out of HS so the best option was to go to college for one year. Now there is a better option for those kids. I think it's better for everyone. M hasn't landed any obvious one and done players and I still manage to enjoy our team/players. We still have managed to have stars on our team. NCAA will never have the talent of the NBA so it won't matter if college loses the top 10-20 kids to G league.
1. Didn't say college was the better route for Zion.
2. Of course it is better for the NCAA to have transcendent players like Zion Williamson. Big names bring more attention to the sport and subsequently more money into their pockets. Obviously that's the most important factor for them.
I remember watching Duke play Virginia 2 years ago and there were so many big names in the stands. Celebrities, pro players, loads of them. I think LeBron was in attendance. Also the ticket prices for that game were insane, something like 1-2k per ticket for some sections. They still managed to sell the place out. If you don't think the added exposure and revenue that big name athletes bring in isn't important to the NCAA then you're kidding yourself sir.
All Duke home games are sold out. The $1-2k ticket price is the Stubhub market. The 1-and-done guys may raise attention during the regular season but March Madness will still rake in the cash for the NCAA.
I'm talking about a Virginia home game.
1. I agree you didn't say this directly, i just wanted to cover both sides of why a kid would go to college. Most people think that kids/players should be allowed to do what's best for them and not have to consider what's best for your interest level.
2. My point is that this is debatable. First you said more interesting now you're arguing financial benefits. Commercials generate money but I wouldn't say they are more interesting. Big names will still exist because someone always has to be the best player on the best team. We have never had a Zion-level player and I'm fully interested in the team still. Further, Zion wasn't even the highest rated kid in that Duke class (he was 3rd on the team).
Let's play out 2018 in a hypothetical world where the top 20 HS recruits go to the G League. College would still have Ja Morant (#2 pick in 2019 NBA draft), De'Andre Hunter (#4 pick), Jarrett Culver (#6 pick), Coby White (#7 pick), Jaxson Hayes (#8 pick) and Cameron Johnson (#10 pick). There will still be plenty of talent, hype and money to go around.
Your argument states that Zion brought more money to Duke. Can you confirm that? I just did some searching and can't find any confirmation of a bump in revenue last year. It's hard to find a consistent source with defined metrics but Forbes had Duke #2 nationally at around $34M in 2018 and SI had Duke #4 nationally at around $33M in 2019.
Regardless, Duke will still get the top kids available, will still be good at basketball, will still sell out with high ticket costs, will still have celebrities in attendance and will still make a bunch of money.
I can make an argument that a player like Trey Burke was way more interesting and profitable for college basketball than Zion.
The NCAA will never have the talent of the NBA. And even if colleges lose the top 10-20 kids to the G-league, the NCAA will still have more talent than the G-League.
I’m pretty sure G league teams would beat any NCAA team
I would agree that that’s likely the case. But there could easily be some exceptions. Imagine a college team loaded with first round talent and playing cohesively. Think the recent Villanova team that had three first round picks and an early second rounder. Or even a team with multiple lottery picks who could beat a G league team on a given night. Regardless, I don’t think that’s what is being talked about here—just the overall amount of talent in each league.
I’m pretty sure G league teams would beat any NCAA team
The G League just became infinitely more watchable. Adam Silver is so good at his job. lol
Why is the G League more watchable? Do you care about Jaylen Green? I'd still rather watch Men's NCAA, NBA, Women's NCAA, Big3 and if that hasn't quenched my desire, I'll check out the G-League. I don't think the NBA cares about ratings for the G League either. They only do it for the scouting and development so teams are better prepared for the draft. The money is insignificant to them. The entire G League salary pool is less than one All Star caliber player.
Sources now saying Isaiah Todd will be joining him on the new G-League team in Sothern Cal
Did anyone see Isaiah Todd’s film and think he would possibly be someone who could compete in the NBA if there was no age restriction?
Green and Christopher yeah I can see them, but I did not see that in Todd
Todd has one helluva a skill-set that is going to serve him well at the NBA level-and he is going to get better and stronger. Christopher is the kid that is going to struggle as he moves up the food chain. In the NBA, he is not big enough to be a bully taking it to the basket and he does not shoot well enough to stretch the defense. The kid is a tremendous athlete but I see him as holding a strong possibility of being a tweener who gets lost in the shuffle.
Before all is said and done with this year I bet Christopher's family decides to go the pro route and cash in, as much as they can, on the hype they are creating. I do not blame them for this-it is where this world is-cashing in on today and not taking tomorrow into account.
Let as many go pro as they want. Back when they changed the rule so that you could go pro before the end of your junior year people said it would ruin college basketball. Nope.
Let another small group of players that would only play 1 year anyway leave, who cares. I'll still watch.
There is no brand / fan equity for the g-league. None at all. People watch college basketball for the history, the awesome player stories and personalities, the coaches, the NCAA March Madness, the traditional rivalries and more. There is an institution.
Nobody cares about the Fort Meyer Mighty Mites and their 18 year old "prodigy" who might be the next Kobe or might be the next Sebastian Telfair.
The franchise locality and its support determines its success. League-wide attendance has topped 1.6 million annually for the past 9 years. League teams played about 43 games into their current season before games were halted by the pandemic.
There has been pressure on G league pathway program head Rod Strickland to create more interest in the select contract effort to attract top prep players to play pro ball in the states instead of going overseas, especially Australia, because the pay level wasn't sufficient to keep them here. So, the top salary was raised to $500k. Actually, the stumbling block for at least three players who were considering the program last fall wasn't money so much as the lack of choice in determining where they would play.
Whether the select contract program works depends on your outlook. While it might lure top players to stay at home and boost potential league gate and TV exposure, it now puts the highest value on its youngest and most inexperienced players, who have never played a moment of college ball, with the expectation that their prep status alone and natural ability will make them immediate stars --at least from a financial perspective.
With yearly salaries for regular league players at the $35k level, that creates a disparity that goes beyond age and experience especially when you overpaying youth not based on known achievement but realization of anticipated potential.
Good for him / Todd, whoever. Go get your "bag". Insane to me that a shoe company would throw millions at a young guy but hey... when you employee highly questionable China-run labor camps to make a product, you have a few million to drop, I guess.
But G league is still G league. Won't get watched for the most part. And the NBA is in trouble. As are all pro sports leagues, but the NBA in particular. Indoors, a lack of fans in many markets already, a big market in China that now is a hot spot and rife with political implications. Think a league that bends over to China is going to do even better now in USA with the casual fan? Does Steve Kerr know anything about China and Hong Kong history or is it still all a grand mystery to him?
Nobody cares about the Flint City Tropics versus the Fort Meyer Mites. There is no brand equity. People will still watch Michigan vs Michigan State basketball. And Duke vs UNC. Timeless rivalries. Could care less about NBA. Would love to see it tank completely and then be rebuilt.
But, yeah, good for the kiddos. And I agree with the name-image-likeness push. I'll wait for the Jalen Green sneakers to hit clearance in a year or so.
Lol, the NBA isn’t in trouble
At the end of the day, this model would be pretty wild. The league itself is essentially buying out players from attending college. I think the NCAA is going to argue that the risk has to shift from the league itself to individual NBA teams. Or else this is going to completely deplete the NCAA from having elite talent.