The NBA G League will offer $125K “select contracts” to a handful of prospects entering the league, beginning in 2019/20, in an attempt to position the NBAGL as a viable alternative to the NCAA.
In a conversation with Ben Standig of NBC Sports Washington, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggested he believes those contracts will help make the G League more appealing to young players, but he also pointed to another reason why prospects should be inclined to choose a professional path over a year in college.
Referring to high school prospect Julian Newman, who caught on with LaVar Ball‘s Big Baller Brand, Cuban observed that in today’s social media landscape, a player can become marketable and build a brand around himself even before he reaches the NBA level.
“If you’re a strong enough brand and a good enough basketball player, you’re crazy I think if you don’t take the [$125K salary] in the NBA G League (because) they can also do their own marketing deals,” Cuban said. “They’re not constrained by the NBA Players Association.
“Pick a very popular player that has a couple of million Instagram followers,” Cuban continued. “You can go right to the G League and probably sign a multi-million shoe deal. Why wouldn’t you do that instead of going to college? Because you’re going to play against better players. You don’t have the ridiculous NCAA rules that say you can only practice X number of hours against your teammates. You can only spend so much time with your coaches. You can’t earn any extra money.”
Cuban’s case for the G League wouldn’t apply to all prospects. Not every player is interested in the marketing opportunities going pro would offer, or in accumulating a massive social media following. And many players simply like the idea of playing college ball, even if they don’t receive a pay check for it.
Still, it will be interesting to see how many prospects view things like Cuban does and opt to try a different route to the NBA going forward.
This is great on multiple levels. The main losers here would be the blue blooded collegiate programs and NCAA. Only the ultra prospects would make this jump to the G-League to get money quicker. Most kids still would go the college route and it would make the college level have more parody. The NCAA would lose marketability with less superstar prospects and the blue blood programs wouldn’t be as dominant as the superstar prospects wouldn’t need to go to a major college to get a larger profile. Major benefits with limited drawbacks for fans, players, and NBA. Would suck for Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. and the NCAA.
UNC would hardly be affected as they RARELY *nassir little being the most recent exception* go after the top players in each recruiting class
Tony Bradley, Cobi White, all of 2014… yeah not sure what you mean by rarely
Plus they offer all the blue chip recruits. They offered Tatum DSJ Zion etc
Lol what are you talking about? Unc always goes after top guys. Why wouldn’t they? Do you not remember the recruitment of Harrison Barnes?
Actually, those blue blood programs will be the big winners from the end of one and done. For them, it’s always been a choice between two evils. Take them, and turn your program over to a new group of kids ever year (participating in sleazy and borderline criminal activities), or let them coalesce at other top schools. Coach K wouldn’t take kids like this in any quantity for years, then did a 180, after watching UK have a near exclusive with top 10 players. Getting these kids out of the system is a cause for celebration for all of the blue blood programs. Maybe not Kentucky, although maybe just not Calipari.
Yea but what makes the g league so great what the avg you make 30,000 ?
For guys that have to scrounge just for meals, the $125K prospect salary and potential for endorsements and other money making avenues are huge. Especially with how strict the NCAA is about earning money for student athletes. One freak injury freshman year of college can change somebody’s entire life and career outlook.
Read the article.
Yeah he pretty clearly didn’t read it
Should have done this a long time ago. The NCAA is nothing but a racket. Most of the “student athletes” on top 10 college teams have no business being there. Let them develop in the G-League or Europe and save the scholarships for actual students committed to atleast 3 years of school.
Universities are probably offering the top players more than $150k to sign on with them lol but I guess nobody wants to think about that
Cuban needs to keep up on the Federal prosecutions involving college BB recruiting. Truly elite prospects are getting more than 125K to be directed toward their current programs. It’s meaningless after the next 2020 and 2021 HS classes.
It should be same rules as football after 3 years u can declare for the draft otherwise take your talents to the g league or overseas
Why