NBA G League President Malcolm Turner Hosts Reddit AMA
On Thursday, NBA G League President Malcolm Turner held court on Reddit on r/NBA with an AMA (short for ask me anything) on all things NBA G League.
Many questions were submitted to the present, most of them asking about G League salaries (which Turner did not respond to though to be fair I don’t feel Reddit is the proper platform to address that issue), but there were a few key pieces of information from Thursday:
Q: Are there talks the g-league (sic) will participate in a tournament against local league winners much like the US Open soccer tournament or the English Premier FA Cup?
Turner: Great question — we view international as the next step of our growth. We launched the International Challenge at NBA All-Star in Los Angeles (against the Mexico National Team), the first international exhibition to be played as part of All-Star Weekend and look forward to continuing in the global space.
Turner could be referencing here as well the report from Marc Stein of the New York Times earlier this season on the NBA opening up shop in Mexico City as early as the 2018–19 season. The league has not announced anything official on expansion south of the border.
On 30-for-30 teams:
Q: Are you planning to expand the G League?
Turner: We are at a record 26 teams this season, Washington is already confirmed to join for the 2018–19 season and we are in active conversations with the remaining NBA teams, New Orleans, Portland and Denver. All of whom we expect to join in the next 12–18 months.
Turner is pretty confident the league will see these teams in the fold sooner rather than later. Credit to him for bringing the 30-for-30 dream into existence with major expansion. His predecessor, Dan Reed, provided the stability and foundation for the G League, and Turner has simply allowed for expansion and proliferation (seven new teams over the past two seasons alone).
Here’s a link to the complete AMA if you’re curious to see his other answers (to about 19 questions or so).
