G League pitch to elite recruits highlights history of developmental league

Kai Sotto and Jalen Green, two of the early recruits in the NBA G League, in an NBTC game at Mall of Asia. NBTC PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The NBA G League has been developing players en route to the NBA for two decades now, but it’s only this year that it burst into the scenes in terms of recruiting prep players.

Top high school recruits Jalen Green, Isaiah Todd, Daishen Nix, and Kai Sotto have all decided to play in the developmental circuit instead of suiting up for high-profile colleges.

NBA G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim said trying to sign these elite recruits was just like a college setup where he emphasized teaching the young men about the G League instead of just throwing a pitch in one single meeting.

“I would say it’s not one pitch but there’s a lot of education about the league. We have a long history of developing players,” said Abdur-Rahim in a videoconference. “This past season we started the year with 40 percent of players in NBA rosters with G League experience.”

“It wasn’t necessarily one pitch, it was more of a series of education about the G League and what we offer and our emphasis in them reaching their goals.”

NBA champions Pascal Siakam, Danny Green, and Jeremy Lin all played in the G League while notable role players such as James Johnson, Seth Curry, Gerald Green, Anthony Tolliver, Robert Covington, and Andre Ingram also spent time in the developmental.

The NBA G League’s success in signing players such as Gree also meant that it has the ability to pry away talents from high-profile colleges such as Kentucky, Auburn, North Carolina, Kansas, University of California at Los Angeles, and Arizona.

At the close of the 2018-19 NBA season, 52 percent of the total players have played in the NBA G League.

“We have a history of players coming into our league and it’s about educating younger players about what we do and the time we spend working with players,” said Abdur-Rahim.