I know it will be nice to have professional basketball here in Oshkosh starting next month, but to me, the NBA G-League is still not what it should be. Just looking at the Wisconsin Herd roster, you see its filled with a couple of guys that we can expect to play with the Bucks for spot duty this year (in fact, Gary Payton, Junior has already been recalled to the big club due to an injury to Malcolm Brogdon) along with undrafted college guys and a few NBA training camp cuts.
What the G-League should be is the solution to the one-and-done corruption of college basketball. Currently, NBA rules prohibit drafting a player until he is one year past his high school graduation. Because those guys can’t play in the G-League either, they end up attending the minimum number of classes required by the NCAA to remain eligible for the first semester at a college basketball power, then attend no classes the second semester and leave school completely after the NCAA Tournament to prepare for the draft. Their being considered “student-athletes” is a complete sham–and prestigious universities lower both their standards and their reputations bending over backwards to accommodate them just for the sake of athletic glory.
But if the NBA lifted its age requirement, those guys (along with other talented players without the academic acumen to even stay eligible for one semester in college) could be drafted–and if they aren’t ready for the big time, they can work on their games in the G-League and get paid–by both the parent club and by the shoe companies (solving another pox upon college basketball). That way college hoops can return to teams made up of kids that actually want to be in school.
Would opening the G-League to all high school grads (or at least those who reach 18-years old–and may not have even bothered to graduate) reduce the talent level of college basketball? It probably would. But college teams that have been together for three or four years would play better ball than the McDonald’s All American team of freshmen that Kentucky hoops has been putting out there the last decade. And keep in mind, college basketball fans won’t care–because the name on the FRONT of the jersey is far more important to them than the names on the BACK of the jersey.
I don’t know if the NBA would ever go that route, as higly-touted prospects would likely demand more money to play in the G-League than the retreads currently filling those rosters. It’s far too convenient and cheap to use the NCAA as a free farm system for the top line young players. But it sure would fix a lot of problems plaguing the sport in the so-called “amateur ranks”. Now if we could just get the NFL to part with a few million from its coffers to start a professional minor league too….
