NBA G League


The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the developmental league of the National Basketball Association. The league comprises 31 teams; as of the 2024–25 season, all are single-affiliated or owned by an NBA team except for the independent Mexico City Capitanes.
The league was founded in 2001 as the National Basketball Development League, renamed the NBA Development League in 2005. It received its present name in 2017 under a deal with Gatorade, becoming the first U.S. professional sports league named for an advertiser.
Initially eight teams, the league expanded after 2005 under a plan by NBA commissioner David Stern, Russ Granik, Bobby Sharma, and other league executives, to develop it into a true minor-league farm system, with each team affiliated with one or more NBA teams. By mid-2014, one-third of NBA players had spent time in the league, up from 23% in 2011.

History

National Basketball Development League (2001–2005)

On June 13, 2000, NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik announced the formation of the National Basketball Development League, to begin play in November 2001, with players required to be at least twenty years old. This was not the first time the league had their own minor league system, as they had used the Continental Basketball Association as a developmental league for over two decades. The NBA had attempted to buy the CBA in March 2000, but they were rejected.
The league began its play as the National Basketball Development League in the 2001–02 season; the eight franchises were all located in the Southeastern United States. Each team logo was given NBDL branding that was differentiated by team colors.
Eight players were called up to the NBA during the season, which included Chris Andersen, the first player drafted by a NBDL team. The league made sponsorship deals with Reebok and television broadcasting deals with ESPN2 and Fox Sports South to broadcast select games during the first season, which made them one of few minor league operations to have nationally televised games. The Greenville Groove won the first NBDL championship on April 8, 2002, after winning game 2 over the North Charleston Lowgators. The league saw an average attendance of 1,640 fans per game, lower than what the NBA expected.

NBA Development League (2005–2017)

In 2005, the league's name was changed to NBA Development League as part of the new collective bargaining agreement with the NBA and a bid to appeal to more fans by showing the connection to the NBA. In the same offseason, Southwest Basketball, LLC led by David Kahn received league permission to operate four new teams. Southwest Basketball purchased three existing franchises and one expansion team: the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, Austin Toros, Fort Worth Flyers, and Tulsa 66ers. The Arkansas RimRockers were also added from the ABA for the 2005–06 season. In February 2006, the D-League expanded to California with the addition of the Bakersfield Jam. Two months later, the league announced that four teams from the CBA were joining the league: the Dakota Wizards, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Idaho Stampede, and a team originally slated for CBA expansion, the Colorado 14ers. Shortly after, the league announced expansion teams in the Anaheim Arsenal and the Los Angeles D-Fenders. The D-Fenders were the first D-League team to be directly owned by an NBA parent team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, the westward expansion contributed to the contraction of the NBA-owned Roanoke Dazzle and Fayetteville Patriots for that season. The Florida Flame suspended operations due to arena scheduling difficulties. After the 2006–07 season, there would be no more teams in the southeastern United States until the 2016 expansion team, the Greensboro Swarm. After the 2006 to 2009 expansions, the league membership was fairly consistent, with few moves or suspensions.
In 2009, the Houston Rockets entered the first single-affiliation partnership, called the "hybrid model", with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. More NBA and D-League teams soon followed, signing single-affiliation agreements in hybrid and parent-team-owned varieties. With more NBA involvement, the league once again began to expand.
By 2015, the last multiple-affiliate team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, was purchased by the Indiana Pacers, leading to the first season where all D-League teams were affiliated with only one NBA team. The remaining NBA teams began purchasing expansion franchises or hybrid partnership teams and placing them near the parent team. In 2015, the Toronto Raptors placed their Raptors 905 in Mississauga, Ontario, in the Greater Toronto Area. In 2016, the D-League added three NBA-parent-owned teams, the league's largest expansion since 2007: the Charlotte Hornets' Greensboro Swarm, the Brooklyn Nets' Long Island Nets, and the Chicago Bulls' Windy City Bulls.

NBA G League (2017–present)

Before the 2017–18 season, Gatorade paid the D-League to rename itself the NBA Gatorade League, which was officially shortened to "NBA G League" before the season. The league moved the Erie BayHawks to Lakeland, Florida, as the Lakeland Magic, a new Erie BayHawks franchise. It added the Agua Caliente Clippers in Ontario, California ; the Memphis Hustle in Southaven, Mississippi; and the Wisconsin Herd in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Los Angeles D-Fenders were renamed the South Bay Lakers.
In December 2017, the NBA and the live-streaming website Twitch announced that they would broadcast G League games on Twitch. Games have also been aired on the ESPN+ subscription service.
For the 2019–20 season, the G League began to offer select contracts to players who are not yet eligible to enter the NBA draft. Since 2006, players must be at least 19 years old by the end of the calendar year, creating what became known as the one-and-done rule where players would play one season of college basketball and then leave for the NBA. The new select contract was an alternative for players who do not want to or cannot attend a college, with players earning up to $125,000 per season. The league launched its prospects team, the NBA G League Ignite, in 2020. The G-League Ignite team folded after the 2023–24 season.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic-curtailed 2019–20 season, the G League postponed the start of the following season. In January 2021, the league announced it would play all games at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, using the same isolation bubble as the 2020 NBA Bubble. Many teams opted out of participation, with only 17 of the 28 teams from the 2019–20 season plus the new Ignite prospects team choosing to take part in the abbreviated bubble season beginning in February 2021.

Teams

Current teams

Team ownership and NBA affiliations

Ownership models vary across the NBA G League. Growing willingness among NBA organizations to invest in the G League has led to two main models: direct ownership of G League teams by parent NBA clubs and single-affiliate partnerships in which the G League team remains independently owned while the affiliate NBA team runs and finances basketball operations.
The first NBA club to own a D-League team was the Los Angeles Lakers, which in 2006 bought the Los Angeles D-Fenders. The San Antonio Spurs bought the Austin Toros in 2007; the Oklahoma City Thunder bought the Tulsa 66ers in 2008. More NBA teams began to purchase existing franchises or create new teams to have their own single-affiliation teams. In 2011, the Cleveland Cavaliers purchased the New Mexico Thunderbirds and renamed them the Canton Charge, and the Golden State Warriors purchased the Dakota Wizards, with the Warriors moving the Wizards a year later to become the Santa Cruz Warriors. In 2013, the Philadelphia 76ers purchased the inactive Utah Flash and moved them to Newark, Delaware, as the Delaware 87ers; the team is now the Delaware Blue Coats, and plays in Wilmington. In 2014, the New York Knicks became the seventh team to fully own and operate their own NBA D-League affiliate in the Westchester Knicks. In 2015, the Toronto Raptors created their own expansion franchise, the Raptors 905. In 2017, the Timberwolves purchased the Iowa Energy and renamed the team the Iowa Wolves. In 2017, the Atlanta Hawks launched their team in under the Erie BayHawks name and then moved the franchise to College Park, Georgia, in 2019 as the College Park Skyhawks. In 2021, the Detroit Pistons moved the Northern Arizona Suns to Detroit and renamed the team as the Motor City Cruise. In 2019, the New Orleans Pelicans launched their G League franchise as a third incarnation of the Erie BayHawks before moving the team to Birmingham, Alabama, as the Birmingham Squadron in 2021. In April 2023, the Portland Trail Blazers announced they would launch their affiliate, the Rip City Remix, for the 2023–24 season. The Phoenix Suns launched the Valley Suns as its affiliate team for the 2024–25 season.
In 2009, the Houston Rockets and Rio Grande Valley Vipers pioneered the single-affiliate partnership, also known as the hybrid model. This led to similar deals: the New Jersey Nets and Springfield Armor, beginning in 2011–12; the New York Knicks and Erie BayHawks in June 2011 the Portland Trail Blazers and the Idaho Stampede in May 2012; the Boston Celtics and Maine Red Claws in June 2012; the Miami Heat and Sioux Falls Skyforce in June 2013; the Sacramento Kings and Reno Bighorns in July 2013. The Stampede ended their affiliation with the Trail Blazers after the 2013–14 season and in June 2014 announced their affiliation with the Utah Jazz. The Armor moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after the 2013–14 season and affiliated with the Detroit Pistons. From 2014 to 2017, the Memphis Grizzlies had a single-affiliation with the Iowa Energy. In 2015, the last multiple-affiliate team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, were purchased by the Indiana Pacers, making the 2015–16 season the first with all teams having single-affiliations.
In some cases, the hybrid affiliation led to the parent team buying their affiliate's franchise outright. On March 24, 2015, the Utah Jazz purchased their affiliate, the Idaho Stampede, and, after one more season in Boise, moved the team to Salt Lake City. On April 11, 2016, the Phoenix Suns purchased their affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam, and announced the immediate move of the team to Prescott Valley, Arizona, as the Northern Arizona Suns beginning with the 2016–17 season. On October 20, 2016, the Sacramento Kings bought the majority ownership of their affiliate of the previous eight seasons, the Reno Bighorns, and would eventually move the team to Stockton, California, as the Stockton Kings after the 2017–18 season. On December 14, 2016, the Magic purchased their affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, with the intention to move the team to Lakeland, Florida, in 2017. In 2017, the Miami Heat purchased the controlling interest in the Sioux Falls Skyforce after being its primary affiliate since 2013. In July 2019, the Boston Celtics acquired its affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, which became the Maine Celtics in 2021.
Since 2020, the league added two teams without affiliation, one of which is still operational. On December 12, 2019, the Mexico City Capitanes, which had been playing in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional, was announced as joining the NBA G League as an independent team in the 2020–21 season on a five-year agreement. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented a normal 2020–21 season and delayed the Capitanes' debut to the 2021–22 season. On April 16, 2020, the NBA launched a development program for NBA prospects and a new unaffiliated team called the NBA G League Ignite, which began play in the 2020–21 season. The Ignite team folded after the 2023–24 season.
Parent club ownership:
  • Austin Spurs
  • Birmingham Squadron
  • Capital City Go-Go
  • Cleveland Charge
  • College Park Skyhawks
  • Delaware Blue Coats
  • Greensboro Swarm
  • Iowa Wolves
  • Long Island Nets
  • Maine Celtics
  • Memphis Hustle
  • Motor City Cruise
  • Noblesville Boom
  • Oklahoma City Blue
  • Osceola Magic
  • Raptors 905
  • Rip City Remix
  • Salt Lake City Stars
  • San Diego Clippers
  • Santa Cruz Warriors
  • Sioux Falls Skyforce
  • South Bay Lakers
  • Stockton Kings
  • Texas Legends
  • Valley Suns
  • Westchester Knicks
  • Windy City Bulls
  • Wisconsin Herd
Single affiliation/hybrid model:
  • Grand Rapids Gold
  • Rio Grande Valley Vipers
G League teams without an exclusive affiliate:
  • Mexico City Capitanes