Igniting a passion for continuous learning The most impactful sports story of the academic year may be the fracturing of traditional amateur sport, most notably in men’s basketball, where pro leagues such as Overtime Elite and the NBA G League have begun to offer young adults an alternative to college hoops. The G League Ignite team, recognizing our long track record of research and education regarding athletes’ life journey, is partnering with the Global Sport Institute to offer a Business of Basketball course to the young men who signed onto the team. Through sessions with 2021 NBA draft picks such as Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga as well as a new class of stars in the summer, the course aimed, like all Global Sport Institute initiatives, to prioritize knowledge. “They come in as mini brands already, so from the time they are very young, the business of sports, marketing and selling, without them taking part in it, has already been in motion,” said G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim. “So just alerting them and helping them understand their place in the business and in the system is, I think, important.” Ignite players are 17 or 18 years old, and they typically spend one year with the team, as NBA players must be 19 years old by the end of their draft year. Chief executive officer Kenneth L. Shropshire and director of research Scott Brooks, who teach the course, are taking advantage of the short time frame that athletes are in the G League pipeline before they begin their full careers. They instruct these recent high school graduates on how basketball operates in a business sense and what they need to know to succeed in that environment.
“This has been a gratifying task to deliver on the post-sport journey work being done by the institute,” Brooks said. “These outstanding young men have the unique opportunity to gain college exposure and credits while launching their professional career.” By crafting a course that is centered on the skills they will need during their playing careers, the education program takes the same approach as the Ignite team as a whole. Rather than using a wide-angle view of education, Ignite players are given the tools they need to succeed in the career they have already chosen. That individualized approach bridges some of the gap created when athletes bypass college to go pro while building off the preexisting relationship between ASU Online and the G League. “No matter how much further they go with college learning, deeper knowledge on the business they are entering will prove invaluable,” Shropshire said. “They also received vital insights on entrepreneurship, professional relationships and, broadly, life beyond sports.” The business of basketball is expansive, so naturally the Global Sport Institute course was as well. In addition to pure sports business lessons, Ignite players learned how to create and innovate off the court, manage relationships in the corporate world and strategically develop a business around their profitable brand. That broad mission took the goals of the Global Sport Institute and applied them to the new opportunities young pro basketball players face. With this important partnership, we have the ability to reach out to some of the youngest pro athletes in America at the ground floor, when the impact is most profound and lessons are most valuable.
NBA G League players during a practice game. NBAE/Getty Images
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