The NBA is moving on from its G League Ignite program, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic. The Ignite has been a developmental program designed for elite prep-to-pro prospects who want to forego their college eligibility in favor of drawing a salary and working towards being selected in the NBA one league out of high school, as the league’s current CBA currently mandates.
Charania notes that, given the advent of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) agreements in the college and even prep school games, players have been able to earn money for their efforts while still in school, thus making the Ignite system a bit superfluous. The Ignite had always been sort of a unique team within the NBAGL, the NBA’s minor league, the rest of which will remain operational.
This is not an altogether unsurprising move. League commissioner Adam Silver hinted that he was going to reevaluate the usefulness of the Ignite during an All-Star Weekend presser in Indianapolis last month, as Kurt Helin of NBC Sports detailed. It’s a sensible choice.
“I think given that that’s happened, I think we are in the process of reassessing Team Ignite,” Silver said. “Now some of those same players who didn’t want to be one-and-done players because they felt it was unfair and they wanted the ability not just to earn a living playing basketball but to do commercial deals that weren’t available to them at college, to hire professional agents, an opportunity that wasn’t available to them at college, they now — all of those same opportunities have become available to them [in college].
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“I’m not sure what the future of Team Ignite will be, because before there was a hole in the marketplace that we thought we were filling before doing that, and now my focus is turning to earlier development of those players,” Silver cautioned at the time. “As we sat down with our players to discuss [lowering the age for NBA draft eligibility to 18 years old or zero years removed from high school] and then essentially the college market changed, the introduction of collectives, NIL, the transfer portal, a lot changed around us, and then we came to a consensus when we sat down with the players and our teams that we were better off staying at 19.”
It’s actually an encouraging development, in a sense, because it means that players are being compensated for their performances (beyond simple scholarships and room and board), and can play within the college system, which has a massive national and even international audience, whereas the G League Ignite was never a major broadcast draw. Other alternative options, like the Overtime Elite (no affiliation with the NBA), international clubs, or agreements with other G League franchises will no doubt remain options, too. This year’s Ignite squad comprises two players pegged for the 2024 NBA draft lottery, Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland.
The G League Ignite was first formed in 2020, with an eye towards improving opportunities for young players who wanted to earn a living prior to their NBA tenure, while also skipping college. Portland Trail Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson, third-year Houston Rockets shooting guard Jalen Green, and New Orleans Pelicans wing Dyson Daniels are all former lottery picks and alums of the Ignite program. NIL deals are now a booming business, and the college market has yielded huge financial windfalls for young players.
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