NBA to Shut Down G League Ignite Team; Featured Top Draft Prospects

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The NBA is shutting down the G League Ignite following the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, the league announced Thursday.

NBA G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim said in a statement:

“Four years ago, we started Ignite to fill a void in the basketball landscape, and I’m proud of the contributions we were able to make to that ecosystem. With the changing environment across youth and collegiate basketball, now is the right time to take this step. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to general manager Anthony McClish, head coach Jason Hart and their staff and to each player who wore an Ignite jersey. As ever, the G League’s commitment to developing top NBA talent and helping players achieve their NBA dreams is unwavering.”

The Ignite, which launched as a G League team in 2020, was mainly comprised of elite draft prospects looking for compensation to play basketball prior to becoming NBA draft-eligible.

The NBA’s decision to shut down the Ignite comes amid the rise of name, image and likeness in college athletics, which gives players the opportunity to be compensated before they go pro.

While players aren’t being paid by their respective schools, they can sign deals with companies in exchange for compensation.

For example, USC’s Bronny James, the son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, is the highest-valued college athlete through NIL at $4.9 million, per On3.com. Kentucky freshman Robert Dillingham also has an NIL valuation of $1 million.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed the possibility of the Ignite being shut down at All-Star Weekend last month, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps:

“I think given that that’s happened, I think we are in the process of reassessing Team Ignite. Because 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.”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.”

At the time the Ignite team was launched, college athletes weren’t being paid and heading to the G League was viewed as an attractive option to draft prospects due to the compensation on the table.

As a result, the Ignite have developed some of the NBA’s top young players, including Scoot Henderson (Portland Trail Blazers), Dyson Daniels (New Orleans Pelicans) and Jalen Green (Houston Rockets).

Henderson was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Daniels was the No. 8 overall pick in 2022 and Green was the No. 2 overall pick in 2021.

The introduction of NIL into college athletics has been a detriment to the Ignite as the team has the G League’s worst record at 6-40 and has already been eliminated from playoff contention.

Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland are two of the team’s top 2024 draft-eligible prospects. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman has Holland being select No. 6 overall and Buzelis being selected No. 7 overall in his latest mock draft.

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