High School Basketball Players Have Their Own Professional League Now

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For decades, young athletes only had one major route to the playing professional leagues — playing for an NCAA Division I team. Today, however, talented basketball players have a chance to skip college and go professional in leagues like Overtime Elite, which pays its players six-figure salaries while prepping them for a professional career either in the NBA or abroad. Is this a positive trend that allows athletes to monetize their abilities or is it a youth sports culture taken to the apex of extremes? We’ll talk about professional high school basketball and what it means for the future of the sport. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KQBD Podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a wellness resort 45 minutes outside of San Diego.
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0:16.3	Rancho LePuerta.com
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0:35.4	Thank you. From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:50.2	By far, the most common route to the NBA for American teenagers runs through NCAA basketball.
0:56.0	In exchange for a college education of some kind, university athletic programs make vast sums of money,
1:01.0	both from the loyalty teams inspire from alums and the entertainment players provide to fans.
1:06.0	It's not a good deal for many players, especially the most talented,
1:10.0	and this system is quite different from pro baseball, hockey, or tennis.
1:13.5	But now, new options and leagues are emerging that replace the college or even high school experience.
1:20.1	The very best players now have new options and leagues.
1:23.1	But will they prove to be less exploitative than what came before?
1:26.2	And then, Scorpion Science.
	...

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