Most college coaches have either taken a politically correct stance or anonymously bashed the G-League’s new foray into luring elite prospects to their developmental league.
Penny Hardaway has chosen neither path, saying it is “almost like tampering” for the G-League to be recruiting players for its “select team” who have already committed to or signed with colleges.
So far, three players – Jalen Green, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix – have signed with the G-League. Todd (Michigan) and Nix (UCLA) already had settled on schools. Green said he would’ve landed at Memphis had he not picked the G-League for a reported $500,000.
“I didn’t think the G-League was built — and I could be wrong — to go and recruit kids that want to go to college out of going to college,” Hardaway, the Memphis coach, said. “I thought they were going to be the organization that was going to be, if you want to go overseas or you absolutely did not want to play college 100 percent, that this would be the best situation for you before you go into the NBA.
“But taking guys out of their commitments [or] they’ve already signed and continuing to talk to their parents, it’s almost like tampering. I really don’t agree with that.”
G-League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim recently told The Post it wasn’t looking to sway kids from attending college. The intent is to offer them an avenue in America to make money right out of high school rather than having to go overseas. One way to combat this is the recent announcement by the NCAA that it will allow student-athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness, though those rules have yet to be defined or voted on.
“What the NCAA can do is what they’re doing now,” Hardaway said. “Moving in the right steps of allowing kids to make money on their own name and likeness. I’m in favor of the name, image and likeness rule. Because it kind of helps us, as college coaches, kind of fight the battle with the G-League and going overseas. It gives a kid a chance to make money [while playing college sports]. The college experience, to me, was the best experience of my career in sports.”
“It will affect how we recruit if the NCAA doesn’t do something about it,” he added. “If they don’t keep taking steps forward to help these kids make money, they’re going to take $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 for five months to play on a select team and just do basketball instead of having to go to class.
“[The NCAA] just [has] to take some desperate measures to make these kids understand that we want you to come to college.”
