4:42pm: The G League has made it official, issuing a press release to announce the cancellation of the season.
“While canceling the remainder of our season weighs heavily on us, we recognize that it is the most appropriate action to take for our league,” NBAGL president Shareef Abdur-Rahim said in a statement. “I extend my sincere gratitude to NBA G League players and coaches for giving their all to their teams and fans this season. And to our fans, I thank you and look forward to resuming play for the 2020-21 season.”
According to Charania (Twitter link), the G League paid out its players for the final 17 days of the season and extended their health benefits. Adam Johnson first reported in March that that would be the case.
4:11pm: Although the NBA intends to restart its 2019/20 season this summer, the NBA G League won’t resume along with it. Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that the G League is canceling the rest of its ’19/20 campaign.
Like the NBA, the G League suspended its season on March 11, shortly after Rudy Gobert‘s positive test for COVID-19. The NBAGL’s regular season had been scheduled to end on March 28, with the postseason to follow. With the remainder of the season canceled, the Wisconsin Herd (33-10), Salt Lake City Stars (30-12), and the rest of the league’s top teams won’t get an opportunity to compete for the 2020 title.
The decision doesn’t come as a surprise — because it’s a developmental league that doesn’t have any huge television deals to worry about, there was little financial motivation for the G League to jump through the necessary hoops to finish its 2019/20 season.
Presumably, two-way players on the 22 teams that will be part of the NBA’s return this summer will travel to Orlando with their respective clubs now that there’s no chance of them being assigned to the G League.
While it’s unclear when the 2020/21 G League season will get underway, it’s a safe bet that training camps and opening night will be pushed back to coincide with the NBA’s late start.
Oh, G
H
Sucks that in 20 years we won’t be able to look back and know who the 2020 GLeague champion was.
Actually, who was the champ in 2019????
The Rio Grande Valley Vipers! Led by current Rocket and Finals MVP Isaiah Hartenstein
Impressive! You knew it or looked it up????
I knew about Hartenstein because I like to monitor development success stories. I’ll admit I cheated on the team though…
For the best and I’m glad the ayers still got paid in full
Wtf change your username
Wasn’t there supposed to be a G-League select team that would scrimmage with teams prior to the restart of the season or was that meant for preparing the Olympic team next year?