Keith Strudler: Going To The G-League

There’s really one thing pretty much every university is worried about right now. Well, I suppose two, because first and foremost they’re all worried about massive coronavirus induced black holes in their budgets. But beyond that existential worry, they’re also all very concerned with this upcoming fall. Namely, will students attend, or attend in the same numbers they have in the past. That’s whether it’s in person, online, hybrid, delayed, flipped, whatever version or model. It’s all about the size of next year’s class and whether the total of new and returning students provides enough revenue to cover a school’s highly streamlined costs.

To that end, it seems UCLA just lost one student from its upcoming freshman class. And as is the concern for universities during this economic crisis, it’s because this student has decided to take a job instead of going to college. Only in this case, it’s not exactly what you think. This is the case of Daishen Nix, a 5-star point guard who was committed to play for the Bruins in Los Angeles this fall. But this week he’s changed his mind about where to play. Only he’s not going to another university, which does tend to happen here and there. He’s decided to play professionally for the G-League, the NBA owned minor league that’s positioned as a feeder for the big show, even if it’s more aspirational than regular. Until recently, the G-League was something of a refuge of last resort, players who wanted one more shot or whose careers were largely on life support. The pay was relatively awful, at least by pro basketball standards, and there’s far more lucrative options in Europe and Asia. So playing for the G-League wasn’t even a second or third option, much less a first. To be clear, the best way to a lucrative NBA career for top prospects was to spend a year at Kentucky or North Carolina or Duke or some equivalent then declaring for the NBA draft. And remember, by NBA rules, all players have to be at least one year out of high school.

But now it seems those norms are changing, even if the rules haven’t. Nix is the third 5 star prospect this year to forgo a college scholarship to play in the NBA’s prep league, leaving behind both the appeal and myth of amateurism. They won’t have to take any classes, whether in person or online as this year may be. They won’t play in March Madness, they’ll never be a BMOC – or big man on campus – and they’ll never get a scholarship or free food at the dining hall or free shoes and t-shirts. That’s what they’re giving up to go to the G-League.

But what they will get is hundreds of thousands of dollars in a new economy that pays star players above union scale. They’ll get freedom to start their endorsement career – not helping Kansas sell more shirts, but marketing for themselves. They’ll get high level coaching and agents and the freedom to largely live their lives however they’d like, as most working folks are want to do. And a year from now, after one year playing semi-professional basketball, Daishen Nix will undoubtedly be a top five pick in the NBA draft. Just as he would have been after one year at UCLA, only with a little more money in the bank.

For a long, long, long time, college sports held something of a cartel on sports apprenticeships, at least for sports that aren’t played primarily by kids of particular privilege – like tennis and golf and gymnastics. For most everything else, if you want to play in the pros, the road goes through an institution of higher learning. That’s a power structure that’s been under duress for some time, but held strong thanks to the enduring relationships between the universities, pro leagues, networks, and a financial model funded by wealthy sponsors and robust enrollments. And now, with just one pandemic, all of those reinforcements are cracking. Which means that it’s going to be tougher and tougher for universities to convince young athletes that the best way to get rich playing sports is to do it for free in-between science classes.

What does this mean for college sports? Maybe a whole lot. Maybe not so much. That probably depends on how hard this virus guts the economics of the industry – I mean higher education, not basketball. It also maybe depends on how authentic universities can be about the value of higher education to talented young kids who want to play sports for a living. Heck, probably to kids who want to do a lot of things for a living, including things that don’t include fields and arenas. And that, more than anything, is what’s on every university’s mind right about now.

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