Two players on the ESPN’s top 100 high school rankings for Class 2020 have so far signed up to play on the special “Select Team” in the NBA G League for the 2020-21 season.
They are No. 1 Jalen Green, a Fil-Am 6-5 shooting guard out of Prolific Prep, and No. 13 Isaiah Todd.
Under the NBA G League’s novel professional pathway program, Green, who is skipping the NCAA or college ball altogether, will receive as much as $500,000 if several performance incentives are met, such as appearing in exhibition games against legitimate G League cluvs and foreign teams and attending community services.
Todd, a 6-10 power forward out of Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina, is slated to earn around $250,000.
Homegrown Filipino player Kai Sotto is ranked No. 68 on the ESPN list. And a decision by the 7-2 mastodon could be in the offing in the coming days.
The uncertainty over the start of the 2920-21 NCAA season due to the COVID-19 pandemic might have been a factor in the decision of Grern and Todd.
Unlike stringent NCAA rules that disallows any perks or financial compensation to its athletes, these prominent 18- or 19-year-old G League players are allowed to seek commercial endorsements such as shoe contracts.
Green figures to attract a seven-figure deal from a leading footwear company. The 6-5 shooting guard is projected to be one of the top picks in the 2021 NBA draft.
From the $125,000 compensation paid off to elite high school graduates when the program was established in 2018, the NBA G League has raised the ante by four times as much after Australia’s National Basketball League came up with its own pro pathway program that pays U. S. standout players as much as $1 million to bypass college and jump directly into its pro league.
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Any local basketball fan worth his salt knows that Fortunato (Atoy) Co Jr. was the first Filipino athlete with Chinese roots to become an entertainer and movie artist as early as the 1970s.
Who then are your top three Chinese-Filipino round ballers from the Tiong Lian or PCYAA games who have since joined the entertainment world, whether on TV or big screen?
Rank them accordingly (1, 2 and 3).