Heard rumblings he might go that route too, but nothing concrete. You swing for the fences and you’ll hit some that could change your program. Not always the safe choices.
I'd be very interested to know what impact the portal has on kids obtaining their degrees over the next 5 years.
If he's as good as advertised then he'll make as much in that G league as he could hope to get from NIL and he won't have to deal with all the college stuff that he likely wouldn't care about in the first place. No classes, campus rules, townie cops itchy for their own headline, or media frenzy moments. If he screws up it won't be national news for 3 months with needing to hire security just to get to games. Just play ball and get ready for the NBA.
This type of stuff weakens and ruins the college game/ and it has for years. These kids turning pro at 17 is ridiculous/ I am sure they all think they are Kobe Bryant or LeBron James- less than 1% actually are anything resembling those guys.
I like capitalism and I have no problem with anyone wanting to get paid. But when did our kids (17 years old) have to become six or seven figure earners? There is such a thing as growing up too fast and missing out on some of the best times of your life. Being a kid and going to college is an amazing experience. There is definitely NIL money to be had in college and the truly big bucks will still be there when you're ready to jump to the NBA.
Not apples to apples. These kids have a choice in whether or not they elect to play college ball vs the G-league route.
Not sure where you got this out of my comments. All I am saying is I think we're creating an environment where there is pressure on these athletes to be big time earners as kids, which causes them to miss out on some of the best times of their lives. College is a great experience, especially if your experience happens in Tuscaloosa, AL.
For those of you that follow me on the board you probably know I rarely get into a back and forth with another poster. So, I'll end by clarifying my position again. I never said these kids shouldn't be allowed to earn money. I simply said we are creating a society where our kids (teenagers) are pressured to become big earners and this can cause them to miss out on some of the best experiences of their lives by not attending college. Not only do you get to be a kid in college but also you have the opportunity to earn NIL money, which can be more than the average G-League annual salary (~$42k). If you're lucky enough to bounce between the G-League and NBA you can certainly make more (~$500k) but as we've already seen top college players can earn over seven figures in NIL money all while developing as a player and still getting to be a kid in college. If Pate is a good as advertised then he could attend one year of college, earn NIL money and then be a top 5 draft prospect like Brandon Miller.
