Being a senior student-athlete can be tough for some people. Many people look for scholarships for their skills in a specific sport and continue their athletic journey. As an abundance of people will fail getting noticed by college recruiters, there is a new approach for continuing their career out of high school.

Instead of having to go through the college route of playing basketball, high school seniors can take in account another route to continue their basketball career. The NBA’s G-League basketball association has offered a new option that seniors in high school can look at and could possibly compete with other basketball programs such as NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association)  and Lavar Ball’s own JBA league (Junior Basketball Association) which over the summer has sparked havoc on social media considering the fact that people who don’t wish to compete in college will compete in Lavar’s league will make a range of $3,000-$10,000 .

Individuals who may not know much about basketball might be wondering what is the G-League and what makes it so exciting for high school basketball players? The G-League is described as the NBA development league which is a minor league for young players hoping to pursue their dreams making it to the NBA. The G-League has been around from 2001-2018 and has barely implemented this rule in the 2018-2019 season.

Although that’s not all that the G-League has to offer to high school students, Malcolm Turner, the president of the league, has made a huge change to this rule to the way high school seniors enter the G-League. He explains, athletes who come out of high school will be offered a contract called “Select Contracts”. Select contracts is a system where 18 year old high school prospects will be able to make $125,000 while competing in the G-League.

In other words, he is saying that the league will speed up the process of athletes wanting to compete in the NBA. This may seem true as in college basketball, you’ll have to pursue getting a degree as you play basketball which can affect the speed of the process of a person who is trying to make it to the NBA right away. There is also a higher chance NBA team scouts would notice a star athlete if they competed in the G-League because of the fact that every professional NBA team owns a G-League team and could recruit any player playing in the G-League. While in college basketball NBA scouts have to review many colleges and may not be able to remember every player he scouts.

The G-League has finally came out of its shell and has come up with a plan athletes will begin to notice them and take part in their journey towards the NBA. It may seem to some people that it’s one of those too good to be true type moments, but this is only one part of the journey to basketball athletes goal… the NBA.