Jalen Lewis is the youngest American basketball player to ever go pro.
According to Shams Charania, the young man has signed a $1 million deal with the new league Overtime Elite at the age of 16. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
He is currently in the 2023 class, but with this deal, Lewis’ shot at playing college basketball is gone.
High school junior Jalen Lewis is signing a $1 million-plus contract with the new Overtime Elite league, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The 16-year-old becomes the youngest to ever turn pro in American basketball.https://t.co/uHBWwA3gx4
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 9, 2021
It’s wild that at the age of 16, Lewis is already a pro basketball player and he’s being paid incredibly well. In Europe, teenagers go pro in basketball all the time.
However, they’re rarely compensated at an incredibly high level, and going pro at the age of 16 in America is literally unheard-of.
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We see players go overseas out of high school, but not after their sophomore year. Clearly, people expect Lewis to be very good and are paying him well for that reason.
Now, he’ll spend a couple seasons playing for Overtime Elite before eventually taking his shot at the NBA.
No matter what happens at this point, he’s paid!