Overtime Elite’s pivot from college basketball foe to friend gives it staying power as an NBA pipeline
It only took a year for records to be broken.
OTE, a basketball factory nestled in Atlanta, Georgia, assisted in the development of two more lottery selections for the second consecutive season.With the No. 2 choice, Washington selected French star Alex Sarr, who had previously played two years with Overtime Elite. Before the first round on Wednesday, a lot of people were considering Rob Dillingham of Kentucky as a potential lottery loser. That never came to pass.After making it to the Western Conference Finals, Minnesota moved up to pick the controversial guard, who, at just 164 pounds and with a 6-foot-3 wingspan, might be the best shot-creator in the draft.
“Who cares about wingspan when you can put the ball in the basket,” Wilkins, a 10-year veteran, said with a laugh. “I’m a basketball player, man. If you can hoop, you can hoop. I don’t care what your wingspan is. It’s like the old adage when (Kevin Durant) came into the league that he isn’t strong enough because he only lifted 185 pounds at the combine twice. He’s a born scorer and the game isn’t played in the weight room. Sure, the weight room is important for athletes of any kind, but who cares about that stuff when you can hoop? Rob is a basketball player. Let him go out there and do his thing and the measurements don’t apply to certain people. He’s one of the guys they don’t apply to.”
OTE gains some well-earned confidence from the Thompsons, Sarr, and Dillingham. The genuine achievement of Dominick Barlow, who managed to remain with San Antonio for two seasons despite not being selected in the 2022 NBA Draft, also bears this out.Another former OTE, Tyler Smith, probably won’t have to wait long on Thursday to hear his name called in the draft’s second round.
OTE now has an opportunity to maintain its position at the top of the basketball hierarchy, which is always shifting, thanks to their vision and flexibility.
Ignite, the NBA’s G League affiliate, can also brag of having two lottery selections on Thursday.At No. 5, Detroit selected Ron Holland, and just six picks later, Chicago selected Matas Buzelis. However, the Ignite closed its doors in March following a terrible 2023–24 season.
OTE has no intention of leaving. It’s available now. Adapting its approach proved beneficial.
College basketball fans were initially quite alarmed by the possibility that G League Ignite and Overtime Elite, with their abundance of money to (legally)swallow at some of the nation’s best players, could pose a serious threat to the collegiate game. When G League Ignite debuted in April 2020, it attracted five-star players like Jonathan Kuminga and Jalen Green. When OTE opened 11 months later, it set its sights on those top hoopers, too.
“In Year 1, there were a lot of rumblings and grumblings,” Wilkins said. “We didn’t make a lot of friends at all. The way for people to get here was to give up their eligibility. That’s just how we had to do it.”
But when Name, Image and Likeness got introduced, college basketball started to punch back in a real way. So Overtime Elite pivoted in 2022 to offer prospects a scholarship option, instead of a salary, to preserve NCAA eligibility. Overtime Elite wisely pivoted from a competitor to college basketball to a new-and-improved, feeder program.
The relationship between OTE and college staffs instantly changed.
“It wasn’t really awkward at all, it was unspoken,” Wilkins says. “We never talked about the thing. There were a lot of coaches who are in our building now who we talk to on a daily basis were against our first-year model. If you were in their shoes, you can see why. We take talent from them. You’re taking opportunities and players from them. I get it. But we had to start somewhere. Without that start, that relationship we have now probably would have never happened.”
OTE provided Dillingham some semblance of structure that Kanye West’s failed Donda Academy couldn’t rival. OTE has pivoted from competing against college basketball to helping it. Dillingham was one of the most dazzling freshmen in the sport last season at Kentucky.
“We provide a bunch of feedback to the coaches with scouting reports, numbers they’re doing every day, analytics, how many shots guys are getting, what percentage they’re shooting, how much they’re in the gym,” Wilkins said. “All of those things we provide for the college coaches and it’s been a great partnership so far.”
Its biggest rivals now are big-time prep high schools, not college basketball or the G League Ignite.
