NBA’s G League Showcase eyes growth by relocating to Orlando
Not too long ago, the G-League Winter Showcase took place in South Padre Island, Texas.
And before that Columbus, Ga., Fayetteville, N.C., Sioux Falls, S.D., Orem, Utah, and Boise, Idaoho.
Thursday’s announcement that the showcase will be staged at Hyatt Regeny Orlando and Orange County Convention Center for the next four years indicates how significantly it has grown since the G League — then called the National Basketball Developmental League at its 2001 inception — had held the event in Las Vegas since 2019.
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“What this is is the evolotion of the showcase,” Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a No. 3 pick in the 1996 NBA draft who is president of the G League, told the Orlando Sentinel. “Not only coming to Orlando but the partnership with Hyatt and bringing it to one of their flagship properties.”
This year’s showcase will run Dec. 19-22. It happens every year before NBA teams can start signing players to 10-day contracts which is typically the second week of January.
While fans aren’t allowed to attend, it’s a bonanza of NBA executives and evaluators looking at 300-plus players trying to earn their way onto the biggest stage. In some cases, players are trying to get back in.
Kevon Harris, undrafted out of Stephen F. Austin, has gone back and forth to Orlando Magic’s G League team (Osceola Magic) as a two-way player. He played 20 games there and made 34 appearances with the NBA team. Admiral Schofield, a 2019 second-round draft pick, made 37 NBA appearances for Orlando and logged 26 in the G League.
It’s not just the showcase that’s changing. The perception of the G League, which had been called the D-League until Gatorade acquired naming rights in 2017, has evolved, too.
“It’s like night and day when you think of the language that was used,” Rahim said. “You were sent down to the G League, a negative connotation. Now it’s really an opportunity. You have players looking for the opportunity, with a goal of playing in the G League. We’ve evolved from that negative connotation of being demoted to what’s emerging, to what’s next, what’s exciting.”
NBA front office staff, coaches and officials get their start in the G League. It also serves as a testing lab for rules changes that eventually benefit the NBA product (coach’s challenges; shot-clock resets; transition take fouls).
At its inception, Las Vegas Summer League, an offseason staple of the NBA calender every July after the draft in June, wasn’t what it is today. It started out with six NBA teams participating in 2004 and little media coverage and exposure. The league added its name to the event and sponsors such as EA Sports and Samsung helped boost its profile and take it to another level. Now all 30 teams compete.
The G League Winter Showcase isn’t a fan event, but that’s the direction it could be heading with Hyatt, Gatorade and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission pushing innovation to help grow it. The G League’s relationship with Las Vegas and MGM represented the showcase’s first step away from outposts that used to be the markets for G-League teams. Now most are closer, if not in the same city, as their NBA big brother.
“That’s part of our plan, to be able to continue to grow it and for it to evolve. This is a step towards that,” Abur-Rahim said about eventually opening the showcase to fans. “The space that we have with hotels in Orlando and Hyatt will accommodate that. All of that is in the plans. We want to be thoughtful in the way we do it.”
December weather in Orlando would seem to be good timing.
