Barlow on the move - Overtime Elite
- Thread starter King Of All Message Boards
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IMO it is not a good move. He’s not a top 10-20 type of guy, so at the end of 2 years if he doesn’t develop, he is lost. If you go college, you have the option of when to try to go pro depending upon how quickly you blow up. You also become much more marketable and much more known by playing for a college that gets lots of pub. He will be a no name for 2 years unless he really blows up.
Adults get to make choices. Then you live with them good or bad.
The kid has a lot of upside. Worse case scenario is playing overseas in couple of years. I said this before, he looks like he could become a bigger Justin Champagnie.
Maybe. Does playing there bar him from playing college ball down the road? Lot of unknowns here, he could easily come out ahead.
Of course it does, just like signing to play in the G League or to play in one of the European Leagues would. You can't play professional basketball and then go back and play in college.
He was never going to college once he blew up. He was gonna declare for the draft, now that’s a formality as he’s already entered in the 22 draft,
Remember, I said down the road. You can't do that under the current rules. A year ago you couldn't earn money via NIL. Who knows what else will change.
FWIW -- Barlow is exactly the type of guy Overtime Elite is targeting. They say they are not going after the kinds of guys who go to Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, etc.
So you think that down the road they are going to allow former professional basketball players to play college basketball? Really?
As I said, maybe. What's the difference between the players signed by OE and players at say Kentucky or Memphis? Is it that OE pays them above board?
Probably won't happen, but I don't know what the sin is in doing so.
The whole system is so corrupt it’s laughable but like you say at least OE shows people their books.
Actually, it might not be a bad decision for him. He gets paid now, and he'll be competing against quality competition, and his coaching will presumably be better than what is found in most high schools. At the end of two years, it is very likely that he will have acquired, at minimum, a G League level of talent. And, if he doesn't want to pursue a professional career, he still has a $100,000 tuition fund set aside by the league plus whatever he might have saved from his earnings. That might not pay for an elite private school, but it probably covers the cost of attending an in-state public school. And, there's always Europe.
ETA: Let's also remember that Overtime Elite (and G League Ignite) are probably doing their own player evaluations. Rivals, ESPN, and 24/7 are really struggling with their rankings this year (if not most years) due to the pandemic. The various services are cutting personnel at a time when the opportunities to evaluate prospects in live play situations have been diminished. You only have to compare their lists to observe all the discrepancies. Saying that an Overtime Elite signee isn't highly rated probably isn't that accurate.
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If you playing a sport and your goal was to receive a college education for free then he’s making a mistake , however most of these kids want to be professional bb players not communication majors . So why not get paid and focus only on your development, especially if academics isn’t your thing .
Let’s not be hypocritical most universities playing D1 ball only give lip service to the importance of academics in men’s bb and Fb , academic excellence is nice , but eligibility is the only thing that really matters .
Let’s not be hypocritical most universities playing D1 ball only give lip service to the importance of academics in men’s bb and Fb , academic excellence is nice , but eligibility is the only thing that really matters .
The whole system is so corrupt so who’s to say what Barlow is doing is the wrong choice? Some of these kids come from terrible situations and get awful advice from their “Handlers” and “Hangers On”. Least he’s gonna get paid legitimately and not have the Bag $ stop cuz he doesn’t listen or perform.
I'm not sure for who they are trying to really target. They have international players from all over, they have a few players not ranked in the Top 150, and they have multiple 5 star players that most certainly have Kentucky and Kansas type offers that are legit 5 star talents. And they are pulling Elite talent right out of the 2023 class.
Perhaps they are taking some lesser talented players to build a bigger base of players for the future just to get things started. But they have some major signings already, signings good enough that a player could choose anywhere he wants to go.
This is technically a 1/1 deal for Overtime and Barlow as I said he will be in the NBA draft regardless now that he’s a pro and he’s of age next year. If he isn’t drafted or picked up he will do 2 years with OTE. I think his original plan was prep and then draft so it turned to OTE/draft.
I don’t understand what the downside is to college now that you can make money?
Why would someone go prep/draft instead of college/draft?
Only makes sense to me if you feel like your weaknesses will be exposed at the major D1 level.
Its hard to say because money is getting thrown around in large amounts on both sides.
An Ohio State football recruit just snagged a $1.4 million NIL deal for example. This Overtime Elite just offered 900K to an Oregon basketball player in the last 24 hours, and the Oregon player turned it down. They also snagged another Top 100-150ish player today, a player that averaged 8 points per game in the EYBL which is respectable but not some homerun NBA talent as of today.
I have no idea what the end game of this is going to look like next year and certainly not 5 years from now. But I do think a number of the players skipping college and going to Overtime Elite are going to get burned badly in the long run. I am intrigued to see if these guys can boost their NBA profile skipping college and going this route. I think this is a a quick payday scheme, but time will tell what type of audience and exposure they really get and what happens to these players when basketball doesn't work out for them. There are plenty of Top 100 busts every year in the recruiting cycle, and overtime elite will produce its share of busts too.
But the lifestyle in college seems much better. Playing in sold out arenas, on ESPN, march Madness, etc. nobody is going to care about the Overtime league. Nobody. Money used to be the differentiating factor but now you can get that either way.
Some kids , even those who don’t participate in sports , are just not interested in going to college .
Let’s not forget too that some of these kids just don’t belong in a college classroom .
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