The NBA officially announced something today that I can’t believe took them this long to create. Starting in the summer of 2019, the NBA G League, which has been the NBA’s minor league since 2001, will begin offering $125,000 contracts to 18 year old prospects who are very likely going to end up in the big leagues eventually. These contracts will give kids the option to skip the whole “one and done” college route while they wait to become eligible for the NBA draft. While under contract, these athletes will also be free to hire an agent, profit from their image, and sign endorsement deals, all of which are against NCAA rules. This is clearly a move to combat the greedy monopoly that the NCAA has had on elite talent for years now, hence why I can’t believe it took the NBA so long to do this.

So as you can probably already tell I love this move. I miss the days of letting freakishly talented people like Lebron come straight out of high school and into the NBA if they’re ready for it. 7 out of 10 of the top high school prospects in the country are currently uncommitted to any college program, which just goes to show you how much of a joke the current system is. Forcing kids to go to college is bullshit, and it’s even more bullshit that these schools would then make millions off of these kids without them seeing a cent of it. .By far the dumbest take I saw about this was that $125,000 is too much for an 18 year old to handle. So 18 year olds aren’t mature enough to handle money, but are mature to handle an m4 and fight ISIS? Sounds pretty dumb to me, mostly because it is. Not everybody needs a college degree, especially people that are athletic enough to make millions while playing professional sports

I hate to give him credit, but I honestly think Lavar Ball and his Junior Basketball Association idea might have had something to do with this. Perhaps the NBA saw that idiot preaching about paying kids to ball up and decided to steal the premise because it is a good plan. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Anytime I see a corrupt and cocky organization like the NCAA suffer some type of loss I consider it a win. They’ve been pimping out teenage athletes for years now and hopefully this is just the beginning of some much needed changes in the pathway to become pro. I also love all the quotes that the NCAA has said so far claiming that they’re somehow happy about this. Sure, I bet you guys are pumped you’re about to lose money and talent. Fuck the NCAA, and I’m glad that the NBA finally took a jab at them like this and took them down a peg. It’ll be interesting to see how it actually plays out, but it seems really good on paper. Anybody who is worried about this ruining college basketball as a whole is an idiot. I’m sure plenty of kids will still play college ball, and March Madness will still be fun to watch every year. This is just a way to get the best of the best ready and into the NBA as quickly as possible, and how can you hate on that?