Yeah… A player like Bryce Griggs probably never makes it into a college campus.
I didn’t realize that and have been thinking that the the NBA product has been getting worse. Guess I should be glad I can enjoy one of the lesser things in life.
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If between the ages of 18 and 30 I had earned $500,000/yr, gross, I would have retired at 30 and not looked back. How many of these kids are going to get dumped after 2 or 3 years of no significant progress essentially penniless?
It worries me when teenagers get a truck load of money dumped on their heads with no real idea of how to handle it. Sadly, many of the kids parents can’t handle it either.
The NBA G League is guaranteeing them a scholarship to a 4 year university. If my basketball career doesn’t work out, I can still go back to school and get an education. It’s a really good deal for the player.
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I look at it as a regular season version of the summer league which is exploding in popularity year after year on TV and attendance.
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College basketball hasn’t been “getting worse”, and having a handful of highly-touted players each year will have almost no impact on college basketball as a whole.
I lift the big middle finger to this article.
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Thamel is garbage and always has been.
I don’t see it as a middle finger.
Frankly, I see it as good for the NCAA and for teams like UH.
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Well, that’s pretty cool. It’s almost like they care about the players.
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It’s a great deal plus endorsements as well as the 500k salary. All that in just one year before the NBA big money.
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The NBA G League isn’t messing around.
After signing prep star Jalen Green on Thursday and reportedly adding former Michigan commit Isaiah Todd, the development league has been linked to a number of high school stars, including 6-foot-9 Texas power forward Greg Brown and 7-1 big man Kai Sotto, a native of the Philippines.
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Good thing it really doesn’t affect us since we’re really never after any of these 5 stars. This effects blue bloods like Duke and UK the most. Wonder if this will cause Calipari to leave UK after this year and give it one final run/pay day for the NBA.
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Here is the one problem with the G league: there is no guarantee of a call up. You can potentially spend your entire career there. Money is great now for the young men, but if you do finish college and get drafted to the NBA, wouldn’t that be better?
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No! Cal has a gold mine at Kentucky. He is set for life and gets just about everyone he wants.
I think you going to an elite group of players who will be announcing for the league their senior year.
Schools like UK will have time to move on down the list.
I get your point @ddkately but talents like Green and Todd can have a sub par year in the G League and I think they still get drafted in the first round. Worst case 2nd but that’s a stretch at this point. Just avoid any major season ending injury and they’re ok. They can always go to college for 4 years even if they do flame out paid by their G League contract. Given how expensive major colleges are right now that’s a sweet gig G League is offering right now.
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I agree but what if the G league offers Hinton and maybe Grimes around $250k - $350k? Would they leave for that if a guaranteed scholarship was involved?
It doesn’t work like that it’s only for sum of the elite HS seniors. I’m thinking sum of the 5 star players preferably top 15… I can see an average of 5-7 players getting offered per year.
Well as long as it stays that way.
And what’s up with this?
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This is great! College fans root for their colors. If we’re in the Sweet 16 or the Final Four, I don’t care if it’s not with NBA talent. It’s all relative. The best “college“ teams with the best “college” athletes will still be competing. The over talent would drop that much. Guys like Will Wade and their “strong a$$ offer(s)” will mean less and they’d have to coach. With a coach like Sampson, we’d be in an even better position than now.
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Yes, but then Duke and UK will go further down their list and offer someone who would have gone elsewhere, and that school will then offer someone else who would have gone elsewhere, etc. It could ultimately indirectly impact us.
I also agree with you guys that this is a typically stupid take from Thamel.
Not having Zion, Durant, Oden, etc. for one year will affect the product and popularity a bit, but it’s not that big of a deal. Before the NBA age limit was increased that was already happening. This year Wiseman played 3 games, Lamelo Ball played in Australia, and Anthony Edwards played on a UGA team no one cared about. College hoops this year was fine.
March Madness will continue to be the second greatest sporting event in the world behind the World Cup so college hoops will remain fine.
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