Abdur-Rahim
New G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim takes charge of the NBA-owned minor league in the midst of dizzying growth as it heads toward a “30 for 30” single affiliation structure with NBA teams.
Currently, the G League stands at an all-time high of 27 teams, each singly affiliated with an NBA parent team. Over the past three years, the G League has added 10 new teams.
The NBA teams currently without single G League affiliations are the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans, although the Pelicans next year will have an affiliation with a new G League franchise in Birmingham, Ala.
Abdur-Rahim, 42, replaces Malcolm Turner as G League president next month. He played 12 seasons in the NBA and has worked in the league office since 2016, most recently as vice president of basketball operations. Prior to that he worked five years with the Sacramento Kings, serving as an assistant general manager and assistant coach. He also worked as a G League general manager for the former Reno Bighorns (now known as the Stockton Kings). He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
At the G League, the biggest challenge will be maintaining the league’s momentum under Turner. In addition to the league’s rapid expansion and bringing on Gatorade as title partner in 2017, the G League this year introduced select contracts that pay $125,000 for the five-month season specifically for elite players age 18 and over who are not yet eligible for the NBA draft.
“Where we’ve come from with team ownership and rebranding, I think I’m fortunate to come into this job at a really exciting time for the league,” he said. “The cool thing is that I’m coming in from the NBA side. … I wouldn’t say there’s any one particular initiative, but we’ve got a momentum and a relevance now.”
A former college star who left Cal after one year for the NBA, Abdur-Rahim brings a keen player insight to the G League executive suite as it offers young players a different option than college basketball.
“I saw a push from the basketball community for an alternative,” said Abdur-Rahim, who was on many of the NBA working groups that led to initiatives like the select contracts. “We’ll have some young men looking for a different path in life skills, financial literacy, getting acclimated.”
