JUST like Remy Martin, Kai Sotto will also get a taste of the Arizona State education once he joins the NBA G League select team.
Brian Shaw bared that the NBA has partnered with the Tempe, Arizona campus to help with the academics of the top-rated high school recruits who have committed to the new professional pathway.
"When they come through our program and they do make it to the NBA, we'll still pay for them for four years of college through a program in Arizona State if they every wanna finish their education. So that’s what a lot of people don’t know," he said in an online media availability.
Some of the notable NBA alumni from ASU are Houston Rockets star James Harden, NBA coaches Byron Scott and Lionel Hollins, and current TNT KaTropa assistant coach Alton Lister.
Martin, the 22-year-old Fil-Am guard, withdrew from the 2020 NBA Draft pool and announced that he will return to the Sun Devils for his fourth year.
There's a chance that he may rub elbows with Sotto, although Shaw said that the NBA G League select program does not necessarily require its players to go to the campus to study.
"I think the big advantage in the G League select team is that they’ll be able to spend a good majority of time working on their game," said Shaw, who spent 14 years in the NBA, most prominently with the Los Angeles Lakers.
"I’m not taking away anything from going to college. Obviously, I played college ball and I think it’s a great experience, but you have a lot of kids -- elite level talent -- who know exactly what their goal is and they don’t particularly want to go to school and go to class. This offers them an opportunity if they’re on this level that they still get to train every single day. (In comparison if) they went to college and maybe played one or two years anyway. But here, they don’t have to go to class."
To Shaw, it's exactly what these players want: to have their full focus on improving their games.
"They’d get to spend more time in the gym working on their craft," he said.
Of course, part of the allure of being in the NBA G League select team will be the experience of being treated like a professional, with paychecks routinely coming every month -- something prospects can't do if they go to college.
"On top of that, they’re able to be paid significant amounts of money for this year to play which they wouldn’t have been able to get in college as well," said Shaw.
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