The G League program has developed Scoot Henderson and other elite draft prospects since its founding in 2020.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the NBA is “in the process of reassessing” the future of the G League Ignite, following the introduction of name, image and likeness in college athletics, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported.
Silver made the comments during his NBA All-Star Weekend press conference on Saturday in Indianapolis, saying NIL rules in college sports have lessened the need for the G League Ignite program to continue. G League Ignite, in its fourth season, was initially created in 2020 to offer a pathway for pre-draft eligible players to be paid to play basketball before being eligible to enter the NBA due to the league’s age limit for players.
Here’s Silver’s direct words on the subject, via Bontemps:
…[N]ow some of those same players who didn’t want to be one-and-done players because they felt it was unfair and they wanted the ability not just to earn a living playing basketball but to do commercial deals that weren’t available to them at college, to hire professional agents, an opportunity that wasn’t available to them at college, they now — all of those same opportunities have become available to them.
I’m not sure what the future of Team Ignite will be, because before there was a hole in the marketplace that we thought we were filling before doing that, and now my focus is turning to earlier development of those players.
The Portland Trail Blazers drafted No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson from the Ignite this past summer. Henderson famously became the youngest professional basketball player in U.S. history after foregoing his senior year of high school to sign a two-year, $1 million contract with the Ignite at age 17 in 2021.
Other elite NBA prospects who played with the Ignite before entering the NBA include Jalen Green (No. 3 in 2021), Jonathan Kuminga (No. 7 in 2021) and Dyson Daniels (No. 8 in 2022, one selection after Portland’s Shaedon Sharpe).
The Ignite have struggled this season, going 6-31, despite rostering some of the top prospects for the upcoming NBA Draft, including Ron Holland and Matas Buzelis.
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