Alex Squadron is a sports journalist who has worked as an associate editor for SLAM, producing cover stories on NBA stars and reporting on numerous marquee events, including the NBA Finals, NBA All-Star Weekend, and FIBA World Cup in China. His newest book, Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA (Nebraska, 2023) is available to order now.

“I know the G stands for ‘Gatorade,’ but that G really stands for ‘Grind,’” Anthony Vereen, a player development coach for the Golden State Warriors and former G League player, told me.

“It’s the league of adversity,” added Scotty Hopson, a basketball journeyman who’s played for three different G League teams. “It’s battling through so much to get to your goals.”

“If you’re coming from a Division I school, how we travel is worse, what we eat is worse, our facilities are worse, our gear is worse,” former G League head coach Ryan Pannone said. 

The G League—the official minor league of the National Basketball Association (NBA)—is perhaps most commonly described as “the place nobody wants to be.” Everyone, from the players to the coaches to the equipment managers, is trying to get to the NBA. To make it out.

If you watched the Amazon documentary Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey, then you have a sense for “the grind” we’re talking about here. In many ways, the G League is a test—not just of basketball talent, but of mental fortitude, commitment, persistence and drive. Like the documentary, my new book, Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA, sheds light on just how challenging that test is. At the end of the day, very few players pass. As former guard Carldell “Squeaky” Johnson, who played 230 games in the minors and 119 total minutes in the NBA, explained to me, the obstacles in the G League make players confront the difficult question, “How bad do you want it?” 

I was fully embedded with the Birmingham Squadron, the affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans, during the 2021-22 season, getting a firsthand look at the G League experience. I attended games, practices, film sessions, team dinners, player-development meetings, private workouts and more. Trust me, the grind is even more arduous than you think.

Of course, there are the glaring differences between life in the minors and the NBA. G League teams fly commercial, not private, leading to far more travel complications, and stay in three-star hotels. G League players earn roughly $40,000 a season, in stark contrast to the million-dollar deals that NBA players sign (even a 10-day contract in the NBA typically pays players more than double the G League salary). Facilities don’t compare; the Squadron practiced in an old auxiliary gym at Birmingham-Southern College (a Division III school) and made use of the same weight room as the students. Per diems are modest and there are no team chefs in the G, which means a lot of Chick-fil-A breakfasts and Chipotle dinners.

Despite these downgrades (some might say because of these downgrades), G League teams practice far more than NBA teams, and players work insane hours in the pursuit of call-ups. Joe Young—one of the main characters of the book, who turned down a $3 million offer in China to join the G League—usually hit the gym around 5:45 am, a ritual he called “The Breakfast Club.” Malcolm Hill, another primary character, crafted an entire daily routine (featuring yoga, meditation, grounding, journaling and more) around optimizing his chances to make it to the NBA.

And then there are the less-obvious pieces of the grind—the mental hurdles that players must overcome. The pressure to be perfect, both on and off the court, is incredible—as former G Leaguer Spencer Dinwiddie said in Destination NBA, “In any section of life when you’re on the margins, you have to make sure that you do every little thing necessary to gain an edge and to get to where you want to go.” In the G League, one can hardly afford to make mistakes. The season is like one long job interview, and the circumstances are constantly changing. Amid the many ups and downs, it’s hard to stay levelheaded, focused and optimistic. 

“Everything changes in the G League—your roster, your minutes, your emotions, your play—and not always for the better,” G League legend Andre Ingram wrote for the foreword of the book. “Staying even-keeled, continuing to work hard, not riding the emotional roller coaster, even expecting constant change, will go a long way toward keeping you spiritually, mentally, and physically right and having the best season you can.”

Players sign up for the “emotional roller coaster” that is the G League, as opposed to journeying overseas (where the conditions and money are often better), because the NBA dream is just that intoxicating. Yes, the G League is the “league of adversity,” but it also offers players the best opportunity to reach the highest level.

“This is your training ground to see where and how high you can reach,” Vereen went on to say about the G. “And then it’s like a trampoline—it bounces you into the next part of your career.” 

That is, if you can endure the grind.