The NBA has hired Rod Strickland to lead its G League professional path program, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reports. The program will offer elite prospects the option to bypass the NCAA and earn a salary of $125K to play in the G League.
Strickland, who played for in the NBA for 17 years, and Allison Feaster, who previously graduated from Harvard and played in the WNBA, will oversee a group that identifies high-level prospects eligible for the program. Wojnarowski notes that Feaster will also oversee the broader implementation of the program.
All graduating high school players are already able to make themselves eligible for the G League draft. However, only elite prospects will be eligible for the higher. non-traditional salary. Feaster and Strickland will be judicious when selecting prospects eligible for the program.
“First and foremost, we want to make it clear that they won’t be searching out any player already committed to school,” Feaster told Woj. “We will focus on players who are undecided. As Rod moves into the market, he’ll have interactions with organizations and potential parents. Initially, it’ll be those who reach out to us and want more information on the professional path.
“It will be elite prospects with a readiness for a professional league. We want to target players who would not be going to a university if it weren’t for the NBA eligibility rule. That’s more or less what’s going to dictate this.”
It’s not yet clear how the G League will distribute the prospects to its teams. The NBA is still considering several factors, including whether a specific team has interest in taking these players and whether it makes sense to have regional geography play a role, Wojnarowski adds.
NBA teams normally have the rights to players it drafts in the G League. These professional path players won’t be eligible to be called up to the NBA (they will have to enter the following year’s NBA draft), meaning NBAGL organizations may be tasked with developing a player they could never see suit up for their respective pro clubs. Wojnarwski notes that teams still recognize the value in getting a chance to get a closer look at top prospects.