Last summer, according to one of the complaints federal prosecutors filed in September, an Adidas AG exec and a Louisville assistant coach conspired with fixers to pay $100,000 to the family of a five-star recruit, later identified as Brian Bowen, to persuade him to enroll at the school. Adidas has a $160 million sponsorship deal with the university. If $100,000 is the going rate for an elite prospect, the G League can probably get away with paying less because it offers better preparation for the NBA. College coaches are focused on winning and keeping their jobs—and bound by NCAA rules limiting practice time—whereas everything about the G League, from the coaching to the schedule to the officiating, is designed to develop professional talent.
That’s why Bazley turned his back on Syracuse. “Spending a year in the G League is going to prepare me for the NBA in a way that no other setting can,” he wrote in the Players’ Tribune in April. Bowen, for his part, left Louisville and is trying to figure out what’s next. Although he wasn’t charged with a crime and has said he was unaware of any alleged payments to his family, the NCAA ruled that he can’t play in college next season. He could wind up in the G League. If he’d been able to earn $75,000 there, he might have chosen it in the first place and saved himself a lot of trouble.
The investment would be worth it for the NBA. A G League that attracts the best high schoolers and other top young players from around the world would command tens of millions of dollars in global media rights, says Daniel Cohen, a media rights consultant at Octagon sports agency. The G League has distribution deals with ESPN, Facebook, NBA TV, a startup network called Eleven Sports, and Twitch Interactive, an Amazon.com subsidiary that streams video games and esports competitions. Eleven, Cohen estimates, pays about $1 million a year. (Turner wouldn’t comment on the league’s finances.) “If I could tune in and watch LeBron James and Kobe Bryant go play their first year for a G League affiliate, it opens up a lot more interest,” he says. “You’ve extended the best league in the world to the two best leagues in the world.”
The NCAA, which charges more than $1 billion per year for broadcast rights to its March Madness men’s tournament, is proof of concept that the American appetite for basketball runs deep. And while much of the attraction of the college game is in its being, or at least pretending to be, for amateurs—kids playing their hearts out for a taste of athletic glory—some of the fun is in seeing tomorrow’s stars today. If the NBA gets it right, fans who once tuned in to watch James Harden play for the Arizona State Sun Devils will soon be watching the next James Harden play for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
Article Appeared @https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-20/the-nba-s-minor-league-could-soon-transform-pro-basketball