Top ranked prep player Jalen Green has decided to skip college and pursue the new NBA G League pathway. Green had also been deciding between Auburn and Memphis and says he would have gone to Memphis had he chosen to go the college route. Green announced the decision on the morning of April 16 via his Instagram live.
Jalen Green will be the first to experiment this new alternative route that will now compete with the NCAA for top recruits. The new G League developmental program will allow top prospects to participate in a year of development that includes oversight from professional coaches and veteran players, while also playing in 10 to 12 exhibition games against the likes of other G League teams and even teams outside of the country. With this move, Green is still eligible for the 2021 NBA Draft, where he is expected to be a top pick.
This upcoming season, Green will make $500,000 while being able to profit from his name and other endorsements, something that he could not do had he gone to college. The NBA’s draft rules currently state that eligible players must be one year removed from high school and 19 years of age during the calendar year.
Normally, players attend college for a year before entering the draft. This is known as the “one-and-done” rule, where top prospects attend college for a year knowing that they will enter the draft at the end of the season. Most of the time, these players know that it will be a short term stay, so they attend a university only because they really have no other option. That is what makes Green’s signing so revolutionary.
In addition, Green’s package also will include a full scholarship.
This new G League pathway program is groundbreaking. The NCAA is still years away from allowing players to profit off of their likeness, and players like Jalen Green are starting to know their worth. If Green decided to attend Memphis, he would have attracted millions of dollars to the university, and he still would have received no compensation.
This is not the first time that a top prospect has bypassed the NCAA and opted to go the pro route. Ever since the NBA implemented the one-and-done rule in 2005, players have been trying to find ways around attending college for a year. A few years ago, Anfernee Simons played a year of postgraduate basketball at IMG before being a first-round pick in 2018. This year, LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton, who were both five-star recruits in the 2019 class, played in Australia’s NBL. Ball is now in the conversation for the No. 1 pick in the draft, while Hampton is projected to be a first-round pick.
Last week, the No. 13 recruit in ESPN’s 100 Isaiah Todd decommitted from Michigan and announced that he would join Green in the G League.
Will this be the new go-to route for future top prospects? If so, the NCAA could be in trouble. Not only could the NCAA miss out on many of the top prospects, but they could also lose money as a result. With the chance to potentially earn seven figures from their salary and endorsement deals, as well as receive free education, this may be difficult for players to turn down in the future.