State Coaches Taking It All In
Weigh In On G League Option, Corruption Trial
AVON – College basketball prospects will soon have another option, and the coaches a new obstacle, in recruiting. The NBA plans to offer 18-year-olds the chance to make $125,000 in its developmental G League.
“Long term, we’re on a dangerous level with kids and education,” said UHart men’s basketball coach John Gallagher, following a panel discussion of the state’s Division I coaches Monday at the Golf Club of Avon. The event, hosted by ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, benefited the V Foundation and the John Saunders Grant for Pediatric Cancer Research and provided a lively discussion of timely topics as the season nears.
“If a kid leaves at 18,” Gallagher said, “and doesn’t make it, is the G League going to pay for four years of education? Then I’d think it’s a good idea, but is the NBAgoing to be willing to pay for four years of education for every basketball player that doesn’t make it? If they say yes to that, I’d be shocked, because you’re dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars. ... I’m not a fan of anything where education is taken out of play ”
Although coaches generally agreed the current system, in which many of the best prospects go to college for only one year before being NBA draft eligible, needs to change, no one was ready to fully embrace the G League proposal. Here’s how the coaches weighed in, topic by topic:
G League Opinions
Yale’s James Jones: “I just don’t want kids to only look at the short term. That’s the
problem I see, when you look at the short-term gain — one year, $125,000. And if you don’t make it in three years, you’re out. I’m worried about the young men the rest of their lives. Education is such an important thing, and not being able to get an education is really tough.”
UConn’s Dan Hurley: “Me, I don’t see that as a great option, especially as we continue to move forward and do as much as we can for our student-athletes at the college level. If we can figure out a way to think progressively about how to make their experience better at the college level, it’s so much better an environment to develop holistically in terms of the next 40 years of their lives instead of the next six. So you’re in the G League three or four years and it doesn’t work out. You go overseas for two years and you try to hang on, and now you’re going to go back and try to get your college education? Now, you’re going to start the second act in your life in your mid-30s. It could potentially be setting these guys up for more failure.”
Quinnipiac’s Baker Dunleavy: “I think it’s getting closer to what we need to be doing, which is creating alternatives for kids who really just want to monetize their potential, that 1 percent of the 1 percent that can sign a big-time shoe deal right now. Give them the option to do that. I agree with a lot of people who are talking about it — kids would still choose to come to college for a year because of the lifestyle and the exposure of playing on TV. And playing against 18-year-olds is better than playing against 28-year-