Bruce Pearl explains why he’s not worried about players skipping college for G-League money
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Some big-name college basketball prospects have decided in recent years to either play professionally overseas or jump straight to the NBA’s G-League instead of spending a year in college.
Many media personalities have opined that this could be the end of college basketball’s relevance, but Auburn coach Bruce Pearl doesn’t buy that.
Pearl pointed out that players used to be able to go directly to the NBA and college basketball did just fine, as you can see below during a radio appearance on SiriusXM on Tuesday:
“College basketball is going to be fine.”@coachbrucepearl tells @TomCrean @DalenCuff and Kyle Smith why he’s not worried about players skipping college for the G-League.
Hear the full conversation free on the @SIRIUSXM app ➡️ https://t.co/Z3ncdTn86Y pic.twitter.com/ACfGOYNNjT
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) May 12, 2020
“College basketball is going to be fine,” Pearl says. “We’ve had some great NBA players that went right from high school — LeBron, Kevin Garnett — there’s a long list. And college basketball has done fine. I have no problem if a young man wants to try to go and start getting paid professionally.”
He cited the experiences Auburn’s Isaac Okoro and Georgia’s Anthony Edwards had this year as reasons top players might still come to college, but said he understands the want (and sometimes need) to make money.
We’ll see if the recent trend takes a toll on college basketball or if Pearl is proven right and the sport continues to have relevance for the masses.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
