John Calipari voices concern for players who choose G League over college

John Calipari thinks the G League’s new Select Contracts will make his Kentucky Wildcats better, but voiced concern about players who do decide to take the “professional path” the league laid out last week.

The Select Contracts will offer elite players — ones who would likely be one-and-done with college programs — a one-year, $125,000 contract. They would be pushed out after one year to the NBA draft.

Calipari concerned about ‘roadkill’ G League leaves behind

The Kentucky men’s basketball head coach told the Louisville Courier Journal after Sunday’s Blue-White Scrimmage that players who don’t make it in the G League will be left as “roadkill” instead of benefiting from the college structure.

His issues regard education in high school and college, which impact players’ Plan B in life, per the Courier Journal’s story.

“My concern comes back to I want to know what happens to the kids that you’ve encouraged not to go to college if they fail,” he said. “What are you going to do for them? That’s my whole thing. What is it going to do to eighth and ninth and 10th graders? Are you going to have a whole wave of those kids that think, ‘I don’t need school I’m going to go to the G League.'”

Going to the G League would yield the same pro of building basketball skills and getting noticed by scouts, while avoiding the need to achieve good grades both in high school and the two semesters players are in college.

Is Calipari on point or off base?

The G League’s new contracts are designed for the best of the best coming out of high school. They’re aimed at the players who would only spend one year at a collegiate institution, meaning these guys aren’t getting their degrees before heading to the draft anyway.

But being a high school talent doesn’t ensure you’re a college or NBA one, especially after a season of being “exposed” by equal talent. So at least those who go to college and maybe find they need more development than one year offers them can do so.

And those who are one-and-done have a college degree underway to come back to while they’re playing, or even afterward.

Calipari’s concern is there is no immediate Plan B for those who go to the G League and don’t gain enough to be a top draft pick. What happens to them?

As for a concern about high school underclassmen who now have an outlet that doesn’t require grades, it may be legitimate. Yet the NBA could drop its NBA eligible age limit back down to 18 as soon as 2022, creating the same concern.

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