Syracuse Basketball: Darius Bazley renounces decision to play in G-League

Darius Bazley, a five-star recruit from Cincinnati, Ohio who de-committed from Syracuse in March, once again manifested his ambivalence Monday afternoon.

Five months ago, Darius Bazley attempted to become a trailblazer when abandoning Syracuse for the NBA G-League, or so we thought.

Five months later, the consummate Power-Forward has now abandoned the NBA G-League and will instead spend the upcoming season training privately ahead of the 2019 NBA Draft.

The dynamic scorer, who competed in the 2018 NBA McDonald’s All-American Game in March, told Shams Charania of The Athletic that he isn’t a firm believer that the G-League’s talent pool of NBA hopefuls possesses the same winning mentality that co-exists in all other competitive sports leagues.

"Bazley even went on to say that, “guys are playing for the team and at the same time trying to play for themselves”, and that in the G-League “everyone is trying to get an opportunity to go to the NBA”."

Bazley’s ambiguous remarks came just months after his announcement to become the first player to make the leap from high-school to the G-Leauge.

Initially, Bazley believed that going pro a year early as opposed to spending a year at Syracuse would be beneficial as the G-League offers an unmatched level of preparation for NBA prospects. At the time, Bazley commended major sports leagues’ increased amounts of development league success across the United States, and was quick to mention the growing number of current NBA players who are G-League alumni. However, things change, and as we’ve so often seen with Bazley, decisions do as well.

Bazley’s decision should make it clear to NBA prospects looking to skip college that the

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competition in the NBA’s Developmental League is far more vigorous than most think.

In addition to participating in the McDonald’s All-American Game, Bazley competed in the Nike Hoop Summit and Jordan Brand Classic and spent an extensive amount of time next to the soon-to-be 12th overall pick in the NBA Draft, Miles Bridges in the spring.

During the summer months, Bazley was a member of the United State’s World Cup team under the ever so esteemed Jeff Van Gundy.

"Two weeks ago, I eluded to how the idea of “Battle, perhaps the ACC’s best pure scorer, not being around for his third season under Boeheim, quite possibly could have hurt Syracuse’s chances of making a serious NCAA Tournament run more than Bazley’s de-commitment.”"

In college basketball, having gifted talents that are always both physically and mentally present when playing for their school is better than having a superstar talent that is only for the most part, physically present.

Bazley’s latest decision won’t make him one of the more perceptible talents ahead of next June’s draft. However, his decision to focus on himself for the next nine months may be a favorable one.

Regardless of what you make of Bazley, it’s his life, and these are his decisions. If he ends up retaining his top-15 value ahead of the 2019 NBA Draft, kudos to him. If not, it will be a loud, cautious awakening to all who are leaning towards following in his path that things don’t always work out for the best prospects.