The odds of making it to the NBA are slim, but the path to get there has more options than ever.
The National Interscholastic Basketball Conference was announced this week, a 10-game nationwide high school league featuring six prep schools with a long history of churning out future college and NBA stars.
Most of the league’s games will be televised nationally on ESPN.
- Oak Hill Academy has produced more than 30 NBA players, including Carmelo Anthony and Rajon Rondo.
- Ben Simmons, D’Angelo Russell, and Cade Cunningham — the projected No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA draft — are all Montverde Academy products.
The NIBC will not pay its players, in case they want to play in college.
Overtime Elite, a league for 16-to-18-year-olds, allows players to skip the college route and earn at least $100,000 per year while becoming eligible for the NBA. It recently signed twins Matt and Ryan Bewley, five-star prospects from Orlando.
Overtime raised $80 million in Series C funding in April and is now valued around $250 million.
Jeff Bezos, Drake, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and NBA stars Devin Booker and Klay Thompson were among investors in the round led by Sapphire Sport and Black Capital.
Last week, 17-year-old Scoot Henderson signed a reported $1 million deal with the G League Ignite — a league launched last year that hosts exhibition games with NBA prospects and veterans. Others, like LaMelo Ball, played overseas before joining the NBA.
