Scoot Henderson becomes youngest pro U.S. hoops player after $1M G League deal
By The Athletic Staff
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Scoot Henderson, 17, is the youngest professional basketball player in U.S. history after signing a contract with the NBA G League Ignite Elite team. The deal is worth $1 million, sources confirm to
The Athletic.
The five-star point guard from Marietta, Ga. will skip his senior year to join fellow five-stars Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga on Ignite Elite. Henderson could become the first player to spend two years with the team.
Henderson was listed as the No. 3 point guard, per 247Sports, before he reclassified.
April 12, 2021
Former Connecticut head coach Kevin Ollie is taking the next step in his coaching career as he was tapped to be the head coach and director of player development for the Overtime Elite, per ESPN. It will reportedly serve as a professional basketball league for top prospects between 16 and 18 years old and will prepare them to make the jump to the next level.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Ollie will join Overtime Elite’s Executive VP and Head of Basketball Operations Brandon Williams in heading a 40-person staff that will oversee the operations of the new venture. The latter also has significant experience in the field as he previously served as a former NBA veteran and front-office executive with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Sacramento Kings.
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The OTE s plan is to offer six-figure financial packages and an academic tutoring component for high school players to compete against prep school and international teams in a year-round training program. The league s model would allow for players to share in prospective revenue from name, image and likeness and sales of custom jerseys, trading cards and non-fungible tokens. These players would lose college eligibility but be able to advance toward the G League and NBA draft in a more basketball-intensive environment.
After winning a national title in his second season as coach at his alma mater in 2014, Ollie advanced to one more NCAA tournament before an acrimonious departure in 2018 because of an NCAA investigation. Ollie filed a suit against UConn to recoup $10 million in back pay, a process that has gone to arbitration.