Jalen Green, the no. 1 player in the 2021 class, announced last week that he would forego a year of college hoops and opt for the G League’s developmental program instead. This one year program will operate outside of the G League’s traditional team structure and its main goal is to develop top high school players and prepare them for the next level: the NBA. Prospects in this program will earn a MINIMUM of $500,000 a season, while Green’s deal could range in the seven-figure range. Green’s decision has rocked the NCAA and raises the question “will college basketball ever be the same?”
For the most part, college is pretty great for top athletes. And there is something to be said about the pride aspect of playing college sports that they’re missing out on when they choose the professional route right out of high school. However, in the case of top basketball players, the choice is pretty clear – take the money. A sport like football is different because players need that time in college to physically mature…could you imagine an 18-year-old offensive lineman fresh off of prom night going up against Aaron Donald? Football players need those (at minimum) three years to mature and go up against some bigger boys. Baseball is similar in the fact that most guys who are drafted out of high school spend at least 3-4 years in the minors before they’re called up anyway, so they might as well play college ball and develop there while getting an education. But basketball is different. Top high school basketball players are ready for the NBA by the time they’ve graduated. Don’t believe me? Here are some guys who went straight to the NBA, you might’ve heard of them:
Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, and the list goes on.
Sadly, in 2005, the NBA and the player’s union came to an agreement that players had to be at least one year removed from high school to be eligible for the NBA draft. Enter: the one-and-done era. Now, the one-and-done route has been utilized by most top college ballers who would’ve been ready for the NBA out of high school but were forced to attend college for one pointless year. So instead of not playing under the NCAA’s iron fist for a year, more guys are starting to forego this year of college and play professionally elsewhere. Americans R.J. Hampton and LaMelo Ball are two of the top prospects for this year’s NBA draft, and they play in the NBL (a professional basketball league in Australia and New Zealand). Seeing that this would be a trend for more players who would rather get paid than play in the NCAA, the G League set up this developmental program to keep these players on home soil.
Herein lies the issue for the NCAA…most top high school players will no longer need the NCAA’s platform for exposure. Don’t get me wrong, NCAA basketball isn’t going anywhere, but the threshold of talent will be significantly reduced. We may no longer see the Zion Williamson’s and Ben Simmons’s of the world play college ball. Will it be weird to watch a Duke vs. UNC game and not see any top-10 draft prospects? Absolutely. But if you were faced with the decision of earning $500,000+ over a year of uncompromised training vs. a year of college, when you know you’re NBA-bound anyway, what would you choose?
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