[OutsiderFan]

No longer will the top U.S. hoops prospects who don't want to - and shouldn't - attend college on a scholarship, need to play overseas to get paid. This has major implications for College Basketball, and they probably aren't great. Though this is absolutely the kind fo thing that will benefit Stanford one would think.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DrewShiller/status/1250833611504283648[/tweet]

[OutsiderFan]

No longer will the top U.S. hoops prospects who don't want to - and shouldn't - attend college on a scholarship, need to play overseas to get paid. This has major implications for College Basketball, and they probably aren't great. Though this is absolutely the kind fo thing that will benefit Stanford one would think.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DrewShiller/status/1250833611504283648[/tweet]

[Papa John]

This sounds good to me and not just because I'm a Stanford fan. Overall, the one-and-dones do more harm than good to college basketball, IMO.

[Papa John]

This sounds good to me and not just because I'm a Stanford fan. Overall, the one-and-dones do more harm than good to college basketball, IMO.

[SamuelMcF]

I think this was only a matter of time. A solution in line with repealing the one-and-done rule, which I believe was off the table until 2021/2022 anyways due to certain picks and trades already being in effect predicated on the current system. To be honest, I've been consistently surprised at the lack of perceived one-and-dones playing overseas every year. You'd think getting paid, playing and training with full-grown adult professionals and professional staff, and seeing another part of the world would be more appealing than it apparently is.

This would likely benefit Stanford heavily in 2 ways:
1. By somewhat hamstringing the number of yearly one-and-done recruits at conference opponents like Arizona, Oregon, UW, and USC yearly.
2. If a player is in fact determined to go to college, the appeal of a Stanford degree will likely be a nontrivial factor in his decision.

Further, I think Haase is starting to gain some rep for development/getting guys to the next level. KZ, Tyrell Terry (either this year or next), Ziaire Williams assuming he is in fact a one-and-done, and possibly Oscar Da Silva to the NBA in a 3-year span. Not to mention Josh Sharma's senior year explosion and ensuing successful rookie campaign in Belgium, and that Daejon Davis will be playing professionally somewhere after graduating. That's 6 professional basketball players in 3 years.

[SamuelMcF]

I think this was only a matter of time. A solution in line with repealing the one-and-done rule, which I believe was off the table until 2021/2022 anyways due to certain picks and trades already being in effect predicated on the current system. To be honest, I've been consistently surprised at the lack of perceived one-and-dones playing overseas every year. You'd think getting paid, playing and training with full-grown adult professionals and professional staff, and seeing another part of the world would be more appealing than it apparently is.

This would likely benefit Stanford heavily in 2 ways:
1. By somewhat hamstringing the number of yearly one-and-done recruits at conference opponents like Arizona, Oregon, UW, and USC yearly.
2. If a player is in fact determined to go to college, the appeal of a Stanford degree will likely be a nontrivial factor in his decision.

Further, I think Haase is starting to gain some rep for development/getting guys to the next level. KZ, Tyrell Terry (either this year or next), Ziaire Williams assuming he is in fact a one-and-done, and possibly Oscar Da Silva to the NBA in a 3-year span. Not to mention Josh Sharma's senior year explosion and ensuing successful rookie campaign in Belgium, and that Daejon Davis will be playing professionally somewhere after graduating. That's 6 professional basketball players in 3 years.

[2006alum]

Terrific news, and long overdue. Will be interesting to see what Ziaire Williams does - if he comes to Stanford for a year, it will certainly tell you that a (future) Stanford degree >> pre-tax $500k + agent & other expenses.

[2006alum]

Terrific news, and long overdue. Will be interesting to see what Ziaire Williams does - if he comes to Stanford for a year, it will certainly tell you that a (future) Stanford degree >> pre-tax $500k + agent & other expenses.

[BobK]

Well going overseas certainly helped the youngest Ball.

Roughly 10 years ago Taylor from a San Diego HS went overseas and wasn’t mature or ready to live the life.

[BobK]

Well going overseas certainly helped the youngest Ball.

Roughly 10 years ago Taylor from a San Diego HS went overseas and wasn’t mature or ready to live the life.

[SamuelMcF]

Terrific news, and long overdue. Will be interesting to see what Ziaire Williams does - if he comes to Stanford for a year, it will certainly tell you that a (future) Stanford degree >> pre-tax $500k + agent & other expenses.

Already signed his LOI. He's coming.

[SamuelMcF]

Terrific news, and long overdue. Will be interesting to see what Ziaire Williams does - if he comes to Stanford for a year, it will certainly tell you that a (future) Stanford degree >> pre-tax $500k + agent & other expenses.

Already signed his LOI. He's coming.

[OutsiderFan]

I for one can’t wait until the NCAA, so strident about the sanctity of amateurism, and seeing money it once got going to the NBA G League, says amateurism is overrated. Because if TV rights payers want to see great players to justify their investments, the NCAA will have to really ask itself what it values most, the sham of amateurism, or money?

[OutsiderFan]

I for one can’t wait until the NCAA, so strident about the sanctity of amateurism, and seeing money it once got going to the NBA G League, says amateurism is overrated. Because if TV rights payers want to see great players to justify their investments, the NCAA will have to really ask itself what it values most, the sham of amateurism, or money?

[BostonCard]

I for one can’t wait until the NCAA, so strident about the sanctity of amateurism, and seeing money it once got going to the NBA G League, says amateurism is overrated. Because if TV rights payers want to see great players to justify their investments, the NCAA will have to really ask itself what it values most, the sham of amateurism, or money?

I think this is a bad take (though I am prepared to be wrong).  Compared to any professional league, the equivalent college sport is subpar in terms of quality.  Even compared to minor leagues (be it baseball, the D league, etc.), the quality of the college game is not the same.  And yet people still flock to college athletics.

If college sports just became a minor professional league, I think that would be the end of fandom for a lot of people.  At that point, you might as well watch the real thing.

BC

[BostonCard]

I for one can’t wait until the NCAA, so strident about the sanctity of amateurism, and seeing money it once got going to the NBA G League, says amateurism is overrated. Because if TV rights payers want to see great players to justify their investments, the NCAA will have to really ask itself what it values most, the sham of amateurism, or money?

I think this is a bad take (though I am prepared to be wrong).  Compared to any professional league, the equivalent college sport is subpar in terms of quality.  Even compared to minor leagues (be it baseball, the D league, etc.), the quality of the college game is not the same.  And yet people still flock to college athletics.

If college sports just became a minor professional league, I think that would be the end of fandom for a lot of people.  At that point, you might as well watch the real thing.

BC

[Brickcity]

I for one can’t wait until the NCAA, so strident about the sanctity of amateurism, and seeing money it once got going to the NBA G League, says amateurism is overrated. Because if TV rights payers want to see great players to justify their investments, the NCAA will have to really ask itself what it values most, the sham of amateurism, or money?

I think this is a bad take (though I am prepared to be wrong).  Compared to any professional league, the equivalent college sport is subpar in terms of quality.  Even compared to minor leagues (be it baseball, the D league, etc.), the quality of the college game is not the same.  And yet people still flock to college athletics.

If college sports just became a minor professional league, I think that would be the end of fandom for a lot of people.  At that point, you might as well watch the real thing.

BC

I concur. There's a reason why in some parts of the country, high school football is so big. The reason I watch sports is not just for the level of play.

[Brickcity]

I for one can’t wait until the NCAA, so strident about the sanctity of amateurism, and seeing money it once got going to the NBA G League, says amateurism is overrated. Because if TV rights payers want to see great players to justify their investments, the NCAA will have to really ask itself what it values most, the sham of amateurism, or money?

I think this is a bad take (though I am prepared to be wrong).  Compared to any professional league, the equivalent college sport is subpar in terms of quality.  Even compared to minor leagues (be it baseball, the D league, etc.), the quality of the college game is not the same.  And yet people still flock to college athletics.

If college sports just became a minor professional league, I think that would be the end of fandom for a lot of people.  At that point, you might as well watch the real thing.

BC

I concur. There's a reason why in some parts of the country, high school football is so big. The reason I watch sports is not just for the level of play.

[JJJ]

Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports’ take:

The comeuppance of the NCAA’s leadership void, lack of vision and overt greed came with blunt force on Thursday afternoon. Think NBA commissioner Adam Silver channeling his inner-Vince Carter and dunking on NCAA president Mark Emmert, whose entire tenure has been spent as a metaphoric Frederic Weis.

The news that Rivals.com No. 2 overall player Jalen Green is headed to an NBA G League development program for more than $500,000 per year marks an inflection point for college basketball, a sport that’s spent the last decade retreating from the American mainstream. College basketball is becoming the typewriter company, newspaper conglomerate or phone book, eroding because of its lack of ability to evolve and innovate.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/the-nb-as-l...05349.html

[JJJ]

Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports’ take:

The comeuppance of the NCAA’s leadership void, lack of vision and overt greed came with blunt force on Thursday afternoon. Think NBA commissioner Adam Silver channeling his inner-Vince Carter and dunking on NCAA president Mark Emmert, whose entire tenure has been spent as a metaphoric Frederic Weis.

The news that Rivals.com No. 2 overall player Jalen Green is headed to an NBA G League development program for more than $500,000 per year marks an inflection point for college basketball, a sport that’s spent the last decade retreating from the American mainstream. College basketball is becoming the typewriter company, newspaper conglomerate or phone book, eroding because of its lack of ability to evolve and innovate.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/the-nb-as-l...05349.html

[BostonCard]

Could Ziair Williams be the top player to go to college?

BC

[BostonCard]

Could Ziair Williams be the top player to go to college?

BC

[2006alum]

Could Ziair Williams be the top player to go to college?

BC

You raise an excellent point - will they rerun recruiting rankings once they know who doesn't actually end up enrolling? 

Letters of intent may be binding for college enrollment on anthletic scholarship but I doubt that would preclude rescinding for the G league, so I assume some of the recruits who signed LOI will be backing out?

[2006alum]

Could Ziair Williams be the top player to go to college?

BC

You raise an excellent point - will they rerun recruiting rankings once they know who doesn't actually end up enrolling? 

Letters of intent may be binding for college enrollment on anthletic scholarship but I doubt that would preclude rescinding for the G league, so I assume some of the recruits who signed LOI will be backing out?

[OutsiderFan]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport. If the Top 10 hoops prospects go play professionally, TV will promote the hell out of them and the media hype machine will draw an audience to them that will cut into the revenue available to college basketball. I would hope the NCAA wouldn’t respond in a market-based way to start paying players, but they are already moving on NIL, so who knows what it will do.

My hope is the NBA moves to the NHL draft model. Everyone is drafted when they are 18. Then, they can either sign to play in a non-NBA pro league or attend college as long as they don’t get paid, with team that drafted them maintaining their rights until they sign an NBA contract, or whatever is collectively bargained.

[OutsiderFan]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport. If the Top 10 hoops prospects go play professionally, TV will promote the hell out of them and the media hype machine will draw an audience to them that will cut into the revenue available to college basketball. I would hope the NCAA wouldn’t respond in a market-based way to start paying players, but they are already moving on NIL, so who knows what it will do.

My hope is the NBA moves to the NHL draft model. Everyone is drafted when they are 18. Then, they can either sign to play in a non-NBA pro league or attend college as long as they don’t get paid, with team that drafted them maintaining their rights until they sign an NBA contract, or whatever is collectively bargained.

[JustAnotherFan]

Terrific news, and long overdue. Will be interesting to see what Ziaire Williams does - if he comes to Stanford for a year, it will certainly tell you that a (future) Stanford degree >> pre-tax $500k + agent & other expenses.

I wouldn't go that far. I wonder how many kids are going to be able to access the $500k? I can imagine it won't be many. I also don't know that I would say that the Stanford degree would necessarily be valued more than the $500k (minus taxes and expenses). Maybe for Zaire, but that value is subjective. 

The nice thing about college is that you can shoot for one and done, but if things don't work out the way you want them to you can always come back to school and hope the next season shoots you into the lottery. There are so many stories of kids going into the draft and striking out that some of them might be wanting some insurance and if they have good people around them it would make sense for someone to know that even if this basketball thing doesn't work out you can always go back to Stanford at 25 years old and get that degree. A brobdingnagian insurance policy for many kids.

[JustAnotherFan]

Terrific news, and long overdue. Will be interesting to see what Ziaire Williams does - if he comes to Stanford for a year, it will certainly tell you that a (future) Stanford degree >> pre-tax $500k + agent & other expenses.

I wouldn't go that far. I wonder how many kids are going to be able to access the $500k? I can imagine it won't be many. I also don't know that I would say that the Stanford degree would necessarily be valued more than the $500k (minus taxes and expenses). Maybe for Zaire, but that value is subjective. 

The nice thing about college is that you can shoot for one and done, but if things don't work out the way you want them to you can always come back to school and hope the next season shoots you into the lottery. There are so many stories of kids going into the draft and striking out that some of them might be wanting some insurance and if they have good people around them it would make sense for someone to know that even if this basketball thing doesn't work out you can always go back to Stanford at 25 years old and get that degree. A brobdingnagian insurance policy for many kids.

[81alum]

Is there /will there be a G league for women?

[81alum]

Is there /will there be a G league for women?

[DenverCard]

https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/1251351851989184518

[DenverCard]

https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/1251351851989184518

[BostonCard]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport.

The NBA is very star driven.  College basketball is generally not, because the "stars" rarely stay more than a year or two tops.  You know that you are going to be able to watch guys like Lebron James dominate for a decade.  I don't really know who the stars are in NCAA basketball outside of Stanford.

BC

[BostonCard]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport.

The NBA is very star driven.  College basketball is generally not, because the "stars" rarely stay more than a year or two tops.  You know that you are going to be able to watch guys like Lebron James dominate for a decade.  I don't really know who the stars are in NCAA basketball outside of Stanford.

BC

[SamuelMcF]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport.

The NBA is very star driven.  College basketball is generally not, because the "stars" rarely stay more than a year or two tops.  You know that you are going to be able to watch guys like Lebron James dominate for a decade.  I don't really know who the stars are in NCAA basketball outside of Stanford.

BC

It is somewhat fun to follow the "stars" for that one year though, or at least see who they are, because they could come from anywhere. Sure, you'll obviously see one-and-dones from blue bloods, but every year there are others. Ja Morant from Murray State last year, for example. This year 2 of the top stars were Obi Toppin from Dayton and Luka Garza from Iowa. Malachi Flynn transferred from Wazzu to SDSU and absolutely dominated.

[SamuelMcF]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport.

The NBA is very star driven.  College basketball is generally not, because the "stars" rarely stay more than a year or two tops.  You know that you are going to be able to watch guys like Lebron James dominate for a decade.  I don't really know who the stars are in NCAA basketball outside of Stanford.

BC

It is somewhat fun to follow the "stars" for that one year though, or at least see who they are, because they could come from anywhere. Sure, you'll obviously see one-and-dones from blue bloods, but every year there are others. Ja Morant from Murray State last year, for example. This year 2 of the top stars were Obi Toppin from Dayton and Luka Garza from Iowa. Malachi Flynn transferred from Wazzu to SDSU and absolutely dominated.

[BostonCard]

It is somewhat fun to follow the "stars" for that one year though, or at least see who they are, because they could come from anywhere. Sure, you'll obviously see one-and-dones from blue bloods, but every year there are others. Ja Morant from Murray State last year, for example. This year 2 of the top stars were Obi Toppin from Dayton and Luka Garza from Iowa. Malachi Flynn transferred from Wazzu to SDSU and absolutely dominated.

Maybe it was the loss of the NCAA tournament, but I was oblivious to all of the names you mentioned.

BC

[BostonCard]

It is somewhat fun to follow the "stars" for that one year though, or at least see who they are, because they could come from anywhere. Sure, you'll obviously see one-and-dones from blue bloods, but every year there are others. Ja Morant from Murray State last year, for example. This year 2 of the top stars were Obi Toppin from Dayton and Luka Garza from Iowa. Malachi Flynn transferred from Wazzu to SDSU and absolutely dominated.

Maybe it was the loss of the NCAA tournament, but I was oblivious to all of the names you mentioned.

BC

[teejers1]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport. If the Top 10 hoops prospects go play professionally, TV will promote the hell out of them and the media hype machine will draw an audience to them that will cut into the revenue available to college basketball. I would hope the NCAA wouldn’t respond in a market-based way to start paying players, but they are already moving on NIL, so who knows what it will do.

My hope is the NBA moves to the NHL draft model. Everyone is drafted when they are 18. Then, they can either sign to play in a non-NBA pro league or attend college as long as they don’t get paid, with team that drafted them maintaining their rights until they sign an NBA contract, or whatever is collectively bargained.

Could not disagree more, except for the part about hoping the NCAA doesn't respond by agreeing to play players.

Look, no one give 2 $hits about the G League, and that will remain true no matter how many 1-and-doners go that route.  Similarly, the NCAA tourney will always be a draw because, contrary to what so many people think, fans root for the names on the front of the jersey, not the back.

[teejers1]

Basketball is an individual star player-driven sport. If the Top 10 hoops prospects go play professionally, TV will promote the hell out of them and the media hype machine will draw an audience to them that will cut into the revenue available to college basketball. I would hope the NCAA wouldn’t respond in a market-based way to start paying players, but they are already moving on NIL, so who knows what it will do.

My hope is the NBA moves to the NHL draft model. Everyone is drafted when they are 18. Then, they can either sign to play in a non-NBA pro league or attend college as long as they don’t get paid, with team that drafted them maintaining their rights until they sign an NBA contract, or whatever is collectively bargained.

Could not disagree more, except for the part about hoping the NCAA doesn't respond by agreeing to play players.

Look, no one give 2 $hits about the G League, and that will remain true no matter how many 1-and-doners go that route.  Similarly, the NCAA tourney will always be a draw because, contrary to what so many people think, fans root for the names on the front of the jersey, not the back.