Adam Silver - NBA to reassess G League Ignite in wake of NIL - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS — NBA commissioner Adam Silver called into question the future of the G League Ignite, saying that the introduction of name, image and likeness into the college basketball landscape has diminished the need for the league to potentially continue the program.

«I think given that that's happened, I think we are in the process of reassessing Team Ignite,» Silver said Saturday night as part of his annual All-Star Weekend news conference here at Lucas Oil Stadium. «Because now some of those same players who didn't want to be one-and-done players because they felt it was unfair and they wanted the ability not just to earn a living playing basketball but to do commercial deals that weren't available to them at college, to hire professional agents, an opportunity that wasn't available to them at college, they now — all of those same opportunities have become available to them.

»I'm not sure what the future of Team Ignite will be, because before there was a hole in the marketplace that we thought we were filling before doing that, and now my focus is turning to earlier development of those players."

This is the fourth season that the Ignite have been in existence. It's a program that was originally created, as Silver said, to provide a path for pre-draft eligible players to be paid to play basketball before being eligible to enter the NBA because of the league's age limit for prospects.

The league touted it as a chance to give players significant money before they could be eligible to make millions by being drafted into the league, and the program landed several high-level prospects over the past few years as a result.

But the introduction of NIL has allowed for college players to make significant money while going to