.jpg?itok=moSr9Ilg&ssl=1 "Sharef Abdur-Rahim, President of the G League, details the evolution of the league and predicts what will happen this new season")
His 2022-2023 season NBA G League starts Friday November 4th. In many ways this will be a historical era for the championship: all 30 teams will participate As a whole, Player salaries are the highest in historythe Showcase Cup returns for a second year and the league will experiment again innovative rule variations.
Growth and development have been common themes in the G League in recent years, a period in which the overall product has continued to improve despite the complications that have arisen while navigating a global pandemic. It is at the forefront of recent developments G League President Sharef Abdur-Rahimwho enters his fourth full season in the role after taking over in January 2019.
In an exclusive interview, Abdur-Rahim provided valuable insight into the state of the league and the ecosystem in continuous development which has fostered a symbiotic relationship between the NBA and the G League.
“That’s what he’s talking about investment in the G League by the NBA and NBA teams”Abdur-Rahim told The Sporting News. “I think the proof of concept is this players see the G League as a stepping stone to continue their journey to the NBAand how important the G League has become to the overall ecosystem.”
To simply call the G League important might be to understate the league’s impact. On the opening night of the 2022-23 NBA season, 47% of players with an NBA contract had G League experience. This is not something to be ignored.
Abdur-Rahim expanded on these elements by explaining that the ecosystem is dominated by players, but not limited to them. In addition to nearly half of the NBA having G League experience, six coaches and more than 75 assistant coaches also had G League experiencewhich according to Abdur-Rahim speaks to the level of talent that exists throughout the league.
Among the overwhelming talent in the G League are G League Ignite prospectsthe first of its kind road show to begin its third season after its inaugural campaign in 2020. In two short years, eight Ignite members have moved on to the NBA, with more to come.
This season, the Ignites, along with the Mexico City Captainswill be fully integrated into the league, competing in a full 50 game seasons after his participation was limited to exhibitions last season, which Abdur-Rahim mentioned as one of the things to watch this year.
As the NBA G League continues to grow, so is his talent and his exposure to basketball fans of the whole world. All indications are that the best is yet to come.
Below is a partial transcript of the conversation with Abdur-Rahim about the evolution of the league and what to expect during the 2022-2023 season.
(Note: The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.)
– In your opinion, what does the number of former G League members in the NBA say about the G League?
Talk about the talent level. Obviously in the G League there are a lot of very good players. He talks about the investment in the G League by the NBA and NBA teams: integration.
Now, all the NBA referees — I think we had three or four NBA referees that were called up or signed by the NBA — all NBA referees who graduate to the NBA start in the G League. We have six coaches in the NBA who were coaches in the G League. So the impact on the entire ecosystem continues to grow and we continue to be an important part of it.
– How has the league developed despite having to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic?
First, I recognize the support we get and the connection we have with the NBA. It would be hard to imagine that we could have gotten through the pandemic of the last two and a half years without this connection with our teams.
A lot of the things we’ve been able to do were initiatives that were underway or that we were working on before the pandemic, and I would say we realized that they were too important to stop. We played in a bubble where our players had to be able to continue to develop and grow and be a part of that system.
We start with Ignitewhich is a very important initiative to move forward. The concept of Capitanes de Ciudad de México has been going on for a long time. We’ve been planning and working on so many things that we haven’t let the challenges stop us from continuing to grow and we’re excited about the current state. We started the season with about 50% of the NBA players having G League experience and we started the season with 30 teams. This includes Ignite and Captains – we are the the first professional league in North America to have a team from Mexico City play entirely in our season.
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– What was the strategy for building the Ignite program, from candidates to veterans and support staff?
The goal is to create an environment that cares for players and is conducive to grow, empower, learn and enter professional life and, in the case of veteran players, continue to progress in your professional career. We start with that thought and that mission and everything else takes care of itself.
Player development is what we do best as a league. We’ve been doing it like a league for over 20 years. And then beyond the program, there are the needs of the players, because there is a younger demographic of players that continues to evolve. Players come from different parts of the world now and watch Dyson Daniels and this year, players like Mojave King, Babacar Sene – the needs of the players and how the team integrates into the G League, all of that continues to evolve and we just keep learning and trying to do better, but we always want to have an environment and a structure that supports the player development and empowerment.
– Do you think there is competition for prospects between Ignite and the new alternative routes to become professionals?
We never thought of it as a competition between other options. I think the impetus for Ignite from the beginning was that there had to be one option for youngsters who wanted something different before playing in the NBA. That’s the mindset we started with.
From a championship point of view, we are not competitive with anyone else. You see the diversity of talent coming from all over the world. I think there are enough opportunities for everyone to grow and develop. For young people, if you choose Ignite and you think that Ignite or G League is the right path to grow and develop, that’s great. If they choose another path, that’s great too.
– What are the league’s next goals in terms of expansion and increasing visibility?
30 for 30 – 30 teams affiliated with each of the NBA franchises has been our goal for some time. I think it is inevitable that we will succeed.
Portland and Phoenix are the two teams without G League affiliates. currently and working on their calendar. Where we spend most of our time is thinking about how we continue to expose the league, our players and how we create awareness. We continue to have more nationally televised games. I think we have 20+ on ESPN this past season, 30+ on NBA TV and another 200 or so, across all the ESPN networks. We also spend a lot of time continuing to educate the fans and get them to the G League game. This is the most important thing.
We get a lot of calls for purchases other than those related to NBA teamsthat have interest in the G League, and we’re not in that situation right now, but some time will be suitable for it.
– What should fans expect from the upcoming G League season?
It is always our talent. There will be a story or a player that people don’t know about. You think about someone like Craig Randall, who was literally a tryout player and played two amazing seasons with the Long Island Nets and became popular recently because he had a great game against the Phoenix Suns during the preseason. He is a G League graduate.
For us, Captains and Ignite are fully integrated. This is the second year we will have our Showcase Cup during the Winter Showcase. The first part of our season is a tournament of sorts and we have a $100,000 prize for the team that wins it.
And then the rules. We test the rules through the G League. A very interesting element that we are going to test this year is this all overtimes will have a scoring objective. We’ve already seen it in the All-Star Game. In more than 30 Winter Showcase games, every game, fourth quarter and overtime will have a scoring goal. This is something really different. We want to keep doing it. Innovation and creativity are the soul of the G League.
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the NBA or its organizations.
