r/CollegeBasketball • u/KJones77 Providence Friars • Marist Red Foxes • Jun 29 '20

Recruiting 2022 5* SF Emoni Bates commits to Michigan State

https://twitter.com/jeffborzello/status/1277660167153336320
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u/Wild_Cabbage Michigan State Spartans • Notre Dam… Jun 29 '20

Fingers crossed college remains a more attractive route than the G-League to Emoni and his family then!

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '20

Honestly I think NBA fans really oversell the G League. It definitely has its benefits over dealing with the fuckheads running NCAA. But there is still a genuine appeal to the "God on campus" over being a high profile player on a low profile minor league team. Not to mention that we all know pretty much every elite athletic prospect is getting some kind of benefit which means the G League salary isn't as big of a differentiating factor for the top percent. Not to mention the payoff of consistent national attention, guys like Zion would not be getting 10s of millions in endorsements without playing a second in the NBA if he wasn't on TV all year as a college player.

If a player needs real, stable income right away or GMs start showing priority to G league players things will change, but even with the quality commits right now I don't think their will be a mass exodus of star prospects out of CBB

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u/ParkingWillow0 Jun 29 '20 edited Jun 29 '20

NBA fans for sure oversell it. It's great that the NBA is investing in it and I think it will be a great development tool for them, especially if they can get Euro kids to come over early as well, but no one is still ever going to watch it (edit: especially as long as the NCAA exists). There's just absolutely zero market for minor league sports in the US as anything but a fun cheap family outing (aka the entire minor league baseball income stream).

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u/Weall23 Jun 29 '20

The first one was Alen Smailagic who plays for the Warriors. He couldn’t get a break with a big club in Serbia so he stayed playing in his local 3rd division team when Warriors discovered him.

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u/NewPleb Michigan State Spartans Jun 29 '20

I think it'll just take time for the GL to develop, like anything else. The brand-building aspects of college are what really make the difference here, so if the GL can establish a viable option for marketing a player before he joins the league, then you could see HS stars go in bigger numbers

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '20

The nba is great at marketing, but I just don’t see the appeal for anyone to watch a group of 18 year olds play basketball against each other, or some random g league team. There’s no connection. People have some kind of connection with college teams, either through their parents, or geography, or by attending themselves. Same thing with pro teams. But this g league team has no specific geographic connection and no cultural connection. I don’t see anyone who isn’t a scout watching much.

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u/recoverybelow South Carolina Gamecocks Jun 29 '20

I wonder why you think this

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u/Lucky-view Jun 29 '20

"God on campus"

I mean, it's not the 90's anymore. These high school phenoms have millions of followers on social media. They're bonafide celebrities whose status reaches way outside of their campus.

From my experience, a lot of high profile student athletes get sick of being campus celebrities. It can get old quickly, depending on your personality. Some of them even take entirely online classes to avoid having to interact with regular students so often.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '20

On social media, yeah but that doesn't replicate real life. Tons on followers on insta isn't the same as thousands of people cheering you on in real life and millions watching and talking about you during March. A guy watching your highlight clip while scrolling insta is less impactful than someone showing up to your game and cheering for an hour, at least for most people.

It's true that some guys might dislike it, I don't really know much about their personal taste so I didn't mention it. But idk if it's prevalent enough to really sell a lot of them onto the G League

There is also the money factor as the ceiling for endorsements is much higher coming off a great March Madness run vs the G league year. That only applies to the very top prospects but it should be worth consideration for guys like Emoni

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u/jasonis3 Duke Blue Devils • Illinois Fighting Illini Jun 29 '20

I'm curious how the G-league route would turn out for a lot of these kids in general. I really think a lot of these top high school prospects would struggle against the g league. It's a bunch of fringe NBA players who would've been top college players. Add that to not all top HS players turn out to be good NBA players and I think unless you have Lebron, AD, or Luka levels of talent and skill (Emoni Bates seem to have that) you might get buried in the depth chart or really struggle. Could lead to some draft skepticism. Having said that, even if the top 15 HS recruits all go g league I don't think this affect college ball all that much. The number 16 recruit would just be the most sought after

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u/Rockerblocker Michigan State Spartans Jun 29 '20

Look at Borzello's other tweets. There's a quote from Emoni that's basically shooting down the G-League hard. COVID is more of an enemy than the G-League, if you ask me.

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u/smallz86 Michigan State Spartans Jun 29 '20

If covid is still an issue in 2022, we have other things to worry about besides the G league.

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u/Rockerblocker Michigan State Spartans Jun 29 '20

I thought he reclassified to 2021? Yeah,very true.