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The 2022-2023 season of the NBA G League begins Friday, November 4. In many ways this will be a historic season for the league: all 30 teams will participate In its whole, player salaries are the highest in historythe Showcase Cup returns for its second year and the league will once again experiment with innovative rule variations.
Growth and evolution have been common themes within 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. At the forefront of recent developments is G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahimwho is entering his fourth full season in the role after taking over in January 2019.
In an exclusive interview, Abdur-Rahim provided valuable information on the state of the league and the ecosystem in constant evolution which has fostered a symbiotic relationship between the NBA and the G League.
“This speaks of investment in the G League by the NBA and NBA teams“le dijo Abdur-Rahim a The Sporting News. “I think the proof of concept is that the players see the G League as a step to continue their path to reach the NBAand how important the G League has become to the overall ecosystem.”
To simply call the G League important might be to underestimate the impact of the league. On the opening night of the 2022-23 NBA season, 47% of NBA contract players had G League experience. That is not something to be overlooked.
Abdur-Rahim expanded on these figures by explaining that the ecosystem is dominated by gamers, but not limited to them. In addition to almost half of the NBA having G League experience, six head coaches and more than 75 assistant coaches also had G League experiencesomething that, according to Abdur-Rahim, speaks to the level of talent present throughout the league.
Among the overwhelming talent in the G League are the prospects from G League Ignitethe first-of-its-kind road show beginning its third season after its inaugural campaign in 2020. In two short years, eight members of the Ignite have gone on to the NBA, with more to come.
This season, the Ignites, along with the Captains of Mexico Citywill be fully integrated into the league, competing in a full 50 game season after his participation was limited to exhibitions last season, something that Abdur-Rahim mentioned as one of the things to watch this year.
As the NBA G League continues to grow, so do his talent and his visibility to basketball fans of all the world. Everything indicates 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.)
– From your point of view, what does the number of former G League members in the NBA say about the G League?
Talk about the level of talent. 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 who were called up or signed by the NBA — all NBA referees who graduate in the NBA start in the G League. We have six head coaches in the NBA who were head 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 grown despite having to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic?
First, I recognize the support we receive and the connection we have with the NBA. It would be hard to imagine that we could get through the pandemic of the last two and a half years without that connection to our teams.
A lot of the things that we’ve been able to do were initiatives that were in play or that we had been working on before the pandemic and I would say we got into the mindset 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 part of that system.
We start with Ignitewhich is a very important initiative for us to move forward. The idea of Capitanes de Ciudad de México has been going on for a long time. We have been planning and working on so many things that we have not allowed challenges to stop us from continuing to grow, and we are excited about the current situation. We started the season with about 50% of NBA players having G League experience and we started the season with 30 teams. That includes Ignite and Captains – we are the first professional league in North America to have a team from Mexico City play entirely in our season.
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– What has been the strategy to create the Ignite program, from prospects to veterans to support staff?
The goal is to create an environment that cares for players and is conducive for them to grow, empower themselves, learn and enter professional life and, in the case of veteran players, keep moving forward 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 have been doing it as a league for more than 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 look at Dyson Daniels and this year, players like Mojave King, Babacar Sene – the needs of the players and how the team is integrated into the G League, all of that continues to evolve and we just continue to learn and try to do better, but we want to always have an environment and structure that is about supporting the growth and empowerment of Players.
– Do you consider that there is a competition for prospects between the Ignite and the new alternative routes to turn professional?
We have never considered it as a competition between other options. I think the impetus for Ignite from the beginning was that there had to be a option for young people who wanted something different before playing in the NBA. That’s the mindset we started with.
From a league standpoint, we’re not in competition with anyone else. You see the diversity of talent that comes 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 Ignite or the G League is the right path to grow and develop, that’s great. If they choose another path, that’s also great.
– What are the league’s next goals regarding expansion and increased visibility?
30 for 30 – 30 teams connected to each of the NBA franchises has been our goal for a while. I think it’s inevitable that we’ll get it.
Portland and Phoenix are the two teams that do not have G League affiliates. currently and are working on their calendar. Where we spend most of our time is thinking about how we continue to bring exposure to the league, our players, and how we create awareness. We continue to have more nationally televised games. I think we’ve got 20+ on ESPN this past season, 30+ on NBA TV and another 200 or so, on all ESPN networks. We also spend a lot of our time continuing to educate fans and getting them into the G League game. That is the most important.
We get a lot of calls about other markets, outside of those related to NBA teamswho have an interest in the G League, and we are not in that situation at the moment, but some time will be right 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 of someone like Craig Randall, who was literally an open tryout player and played two terrific seasons with the Long Island Nets and became popular recently because he had a terrific game against the Phoenix Suns in preseason. He is a G League alumnus.
For us, Captains and Ignite are fully integrated. This is the second year that we will have our Showcase Cup during the Winter Showcase. The first part of our season is kind of a tournament and we have a $100,000 prize pool for the team that wins it.
And then the rules. We’ve been testing the rules through the G League. A very interesting element that we are going to test this year is that all overtimes will have a scoring target. We have already seen it in the All-Star Game. In the more than 30 games of our Winter Showcase, every game, the fourth quarter and overtime will have a scoring objective. That is something really different. We want to keep doing it. Innovation and creativity are the soul of the G League.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the NBA or its organizations.
