Over the many years that top prep basketball players have been recruited, the vast majority chose to go the only traditional route available to them: play college basketball.
Some opted to play overseas. For whatever reason, we have seen that the college route is not for every player. Knowing this, the NBA stepped through their development league.
In the fall of 2018, the NBA G League announced Select Contracts of $125,000 for elite recruits, including opportunities for basketball development, life skills and academic scholarship starting with the 2019-2020 season.
With all of that said, no players from the graduating class of 2019 opted to take part. So the G League set their sights on the class of 2020. As more schools across the country have been exposed in the FBI's investigation into college basketball recruiting, the G League has made their pitch: play and get paid fairly.
On April 16, 2020, the G League announced a raised salary for prospects and a one-year development program. The prospects play alongside veteran players on a select team that will take part in training and 10 to 12 exhibition games against other G League teams, foreign national teams and NBA academies. Players will earn financial incentives for playing games, participating in community events and attending life skills programs coordinated by the G League. They will also receive a full scholarship to Arizona State University, which has partnered with the NBA.
The day the new program was announced, five-star recruit Jalen Green announced his commitment to the G Leagues Ignite team,
with his contract worth $500,000. Ignite then secured commitments from fellow five-star recruits Isaiah Todd,
Jonathan Kuminga and Daishen Nix. Also, four-star prospect Kai Sotto joined on as well.
The 2020-2021 Ignite squad went 8-7 this past season, losing 127-102 to Raptors 905 in the playoff quarterfinals.
This was the first time we had a chance to see all of these players at a higher level of basketball, and they played
very well.
Now with this season in the books, Ignite turns their attention to the upcoming 2021 season. In the past few weeks,
Ignite has secured commitments from a pair of five-star recruits from the graduating class of 2021 in Jaden Hardy
and Michael Foster. They also nabbed former Gonzaga commit Fanbo Zeng, a four-star recruit.
The G League model is one that is looking more and more appealing to future recruits. While their are new NIL
rules coming into place with the NCAA, Ignite offers those few top recruits with a chance to play and get paid
fairly.
As successful as 2020 and 2021 have been for Ignite recruiting, it might well be 2022 where they could land their
biggest class to date.
A number of top ranked players are being recruited the G League, including No. 1 overall Emoni Bates,
Jalen Duren, Scoota Henderson and Keyonte George.
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