New league for prep standouts sends 2 players to NBA combine
They took an opportunity on one another: The teenage energy ahead from New Jersey on the start-up league. The beginning-up league on the younger participant with immense expertise.
Dominick Barlow obtained on-the-job coaching — and a six-figure wage — to skip faculty and be a part of Extra time Elite, a brand new basketball league created to offer highschool gamers one other path to the professionals. He realized about vitamin, social-media abilities and monetary literacy as he immersed himself in hoops.
He has parlayed his time with OTE into an invite to the NBA draft combine this week in Chicago.
For the league, it demonstrates there’s room for but another choice past the traditional route by means of the faculty ranks, the NBA’s G League Ignite or taking part in abroad.
“This simply exhibits how huge this business is,” stated Jay Bilas, a basketball analyst for ESPN. “There’s not only one method to achieve success and have a productive and lengthy profession.”
There have been nearly as many OTE players (Barlow and guard Jean Montero) invited to the mix as from Kansas, the NCAA champion (Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun, Jalen Wilson ).
Over the subsequent few days, they are going to take part in video games, drills and undergo interviews. It’s an opportunity to presumably transfer up a group’s draft board. Montero and Barlow are each presently forecast as second-round picks (though, some mock drafts have Montero going late in the first ).
Popping out of highschool, Barlow wasn’t a five-star recruit. He had suitors — DePaul, Illinois and Florida among them, in keeping with Rivals.com — however elected to go along with the league that ensures at the very least $100,000, together with shares within the firm (Extra time) and different income streams by means of gross sales of customized jerseys, buying and selling playing cards, video video games, and NFTs.
Barlow realized about vitamin and easy classes like how you can steadiness his plate after a heavy exercise. He took a course on media coaching and on increasing his model on social media. He additionally labored with the assistant coaches in apply periods and was supervised by head coach Kevin Ollie, who guided Connecticut to a nationwide title in 2014.
The 26 gamers who shaped the inaugural OTE class had been divided into three groups and performed a full schedule in opposition to prep colleges and one another. The 6-foot-9 Barlow was on Crew Extra time, together with Montero, the place he averaged 14.8 factors. Barlow shot 58.5% from mid-range and 33.9% from 3-point land.
Oftentimes, in entrance of scouts. All year long, greater than 300 professional scouts handed by means of the advanced.
“This put him in place in all probability a lot sooner than anyone would have imagined,” stated Brandon Williams, the pinnacle of basketball operations at OTE who had stops within the NBA with Golden State, San Antonio and Atlanta. “Very like a flower, you want the correct vitamins to blossom. That’s what we had been in a position to do right here.”
One main factor faculty basketball does have: Publicity. The tv offers and the NCAA Event present a strong draw even for gamers who solely plan to stay round for one season. There’s additionally burgeoning name, image and likeness alternatives.
“Most basketball followers don’t know who the G League gamers are till they get drafted. Similar factor with Extra time Elite,” Bilas stated. “The school gamers you understand — Ja Morant or Zion Williamson or whoever. However you possibly can actually enhance — enhance your ability set and your recreation within the G league or Extra time Elite.”
Barlow is making an attempt to make a good larger identify for himself on the mix. Different gamers invited embody Auburn’s Jabari Smith, Duke’s Paolo Banchero and Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren — all of whom may very well be taken No. 1 total by Orlando. Jaden Hardy is amongst a number of gamers from the NBA G League Ignite, a group based mostly within the San Francisco space that’s devoted to creating high younger prospects.
“I do perceive that going into the mix, there are some older guys who could also be a bit bit extra bodily developed than we’re simply because we’re so younger,” stated Barlow, who could be eligible to return to OTE if he’s not drafted. “However I believe we’re a number of the most gifted younger basketball gamers on the planet.”
Barlow has helped set the muse for what may very well be huge issues forward. In subsequent 12 months’s NBA draft, OTE gamers comparable to twins Ausar and Amen Thompson are projected to be lottery picks.
“We don’t have the historical past of a number of the blueblood colleges,” Williams stated. “We’ve to embrace that distinction. There’s this revolutionary group that embraced it as nicely, that desires to play the place it issues. They need to line up in opposition to the most effective expertise. You get charged up when you understand that you simply’ve acquired to battle.“
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