Other players have signed for less than that, around $300,000. It's possible the league could in the future target those already enrolled in college, including a player like Memphis' Emoni Bates, who will not be eligible for the NBA draft until 2023.Ĭompensation/contract specifics: Green's G League Ignite contract was believed to pay him $500,000 over one season, and he was also permitted to sign endorsements. For the first time this summer, Ignite signed a player who was a year removed from high school in junior college product MarJon Beauchamp, 20, signaling the potential to expand the crop of eligible players to more than just traditional one-and-done candidates. G League executives have maintained they have flexibility to evaluate situations on a case-by-case basis, but prefer to sign players who have already graduated high school. 1 point guard in the 2023 class) to a two-year contract upon learning he has enough credits to graduate high school early, but is too young to be draft-eligible in 2022 (Henderson won't turn 19 until 2023). There is flexibility within this system - G League executives Rod Strickland and Shareef Abdur-Rahim recruited and signed then-high school junior Scoot Henderson (the No. Jump to: G League Ignite | Overtime Elite | NBL Next Star program | College basketballĮligibility: Players are eligible for the G League Ignite program upon their high school graduations, but must be selected for inclusion by the NBA. We examined the intricacies of each pathway below: Hampton and Josh Giddey each served a stint before becoming first-round NBA draft picks.Įach of the routes now available to players has its differences, some pronounced and some subtle.
#Ignite basketball professional#
Additionally, more U.S.-born and an increasing amount of European players have begun exploring alternative professional options, including Australia's NBL, where LaMelo Ball, R.J. A startup league, Overtime Elite, began play last month and has attracted more players - including not-yet-graduated high schoolers - to begin earning money and playing professionally with an eye toward NBA careers. The NBA's G League Ignite program formally launched last season with stars, including Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga, forgoing college basketball to play a developmental year on the professional level. It's a system that still has its drawbacks, critics and is not always viewed as serving the best interests of the players in question or the colleges they (briefly, in many cases) attend.īut for the 2022 high school class, the options have grown. Where previous stars such as LeBron James and Kevin Garnett were able to jump straight to the NBA, Kevin Durant and Zion Williamson were compelled to play one year of college basketball before being permitted to make money in the league. The advent of "one-and-done" in 2006 - the NBA rule preventing players from entering the league immediately upon their high school graduation - only solidified that steppingstone construction. The overwhelming majority chose the former, with universities and the NBA embracing a system - one that persists to this day - that effectively utilized college basketball as a sort of minor league. How G League Ignite, OTE, NBL and college basketball stack up for elite NBA draft prospectsįor decades, the equation for high school basketball stars advancing to the next level was fairly simple: college basketball, or the NBA.
#Ignite basketball upgrade#
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