G-League’s Big Paychecks For Elite Prospects Still Doesn’t Change College Basketball

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The announcement by elite 2020 high school recruit Jalen Green to choose the G-League and its $500,000 paycheck has people wondering what impact this will have on college basketball in the future.

Green is the first player to take this route from high school to the G-League and whenever someone is the first to do something, there are going to be ripple effects. This decision is definitely going to have those. But they might not be as large of ripples on college basketball as many would believe.

Jalen Green is officially headed to the NBA G League‼️🤯 @JalenGreen pic.twitter.com/nPmn5RCwRM

— SLAM HS Hoops (@SLAM_HS) April 16, 2020

College Basketball has a loyal niche following. Not everyone that’s an NBA fan, or college football fan, enjoys college hoops. But for those that do, they are always going to follow the game of college basketball regardless.

Keep in mind, it’s remained niche despite having some of the NBA’s current stars having rolled through collegiate campuses across the country. One player picking a big payday or deciding to come to college, college basketball is what it is.

When Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant were turning down the likes of Michigan and Duke respectively out of high school in the mid-1990s for the NBA, college basketball moved forward. The same is going to happen here.

Passing up on college hoops since one-and-done rule has provided mixed results

Since the NBA required players to be 19 years old to enter the draft in 2006, we’ve seen athletes turn down college for other paths. But it hasn’t always worked out for those players.

ZION WILLIAMSON COMMITS TO DUKE UNIVERSITY 😮 pic.twitter.com/sI2Xqwgwra

— High & Outside Sports (@HighandOutside_) January 21, 2018

For every Brandon Jennings, Emmanuel Mudiay, Terrance Ferguson, or even Ricky Ledo there are guys who went to college like Zion Williams, Anthony Davis, and DeAndre Ayton and became No. 1 picks. Plus those players who took the collegiate path grew national followings and elevated their personal brands through their play at college basketball bluebloods. The same can’t be said for the individuals who turned down college hoops.

On the flip side, Jennings, Mudiay, Ferguson, and Ledo were getting paid instead of playing a year as an unpaid college kid. Each individual athlete will need to choose the route that’s best for them and their family.

College basketball will be fine. But the biggest change that could take place with college hoops from the Jalen Green announcement and the emergence of the G-League being a viable option for athletes is that college coaches will have to figure out sooner which recruits want that professional payday right out of high school.

Programs such as Memphis and Oregon invested a lot of the recruiting efforts for the class of 2020 into Green. Now with one player taking the plunge into the G-League’s now lucrative $500,000 waters, college head coaches will figure out sooner which kids want the collegiate experience or not. That then opens up more opportunities for athletes who still need college hoops to develop their game.

The potential impact of lucrative G-League on local college basketball programs

Locally, BYU, Utah, and Utah State are not often involved in recruits who are potential one-and-done players. So the impact of Green’s decision will not be felt much up and down the Wasatch front.

But BYU and Utah are in leagues that have programs at the top who feast on one-and-done’s at Gonzaga in the WCC and Arizona in the Pac-12. So if those teams want to breakthrough in their conferences, they might need a one-and-done type of athlete to put them over the top. Utah just landed a top-30 class nationally according to 247Sports and BYU’s energetic coaching staff has minced no words the past year about the challenges of battling with the Zags every year.

But as a whole, college basketball is going to move forward and could end up stronger if more players become committed to a program for two or three years as we see in college football. If that happens, there could be greater fan support and interest in the sport as a whole.

So if players want to go to the G-League, that’s great. Because college basketball is going to be a product many will suit up and play with its loyal niche following still watching the action.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.