Elite high school players and top recruits now have an alternative option to spending a year playing college basketball.
On Wednesday, the NBA’s development league, the G-League, announced plans to offer one-year, $125,000 contracts to select players 18 years old or older but aren’t eligible for the NBA draft starting in the summer of 2019. To be eligible, players must turn 18 before Sept. 15 of the season they wish to play in. Players who have already gone through the NBA draft process are ineligible for the select contract.
Currently, players must be a year removed from graduating high school in the United States or at least 19 years old if they’re an international player to be eligible for the draft. Often times elite players, such as LSU’s Ben Simmons, play one year of college basketball. Other options are to play in Europe, or in the case of Chalmette High School’s Mitchell Robinson, sit out the year entirely.
“Select Contracts are an answer to the basketball community’s call for additional development options for elite players before they are eligible for the NBA,” said NBA G-League President Malcolm Turner in a press release. “The supporting infrastructure surrounding these newly-created Select Contracts is designed to provide a rich offering of basketball and life skills developmental tools for top young players to grow along their professional paths from high school to the pros.”
Starting in the buildup to the 2019-20 season, the G-League will hire a program manager and a group of scouts that will be tasked with identifying players who will be offered the select contract.
The move comes as the college basketball world is being rocked by a federal trial that includes charges of money laundering and the payment of recruits.