The NBA’s D-League And Their New Partner

Jul 8, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russel (1) during an NBA Summer League game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 8, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russel (1) during an NBA Summer League game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA D-League’s new partner, Gatorade, will definitely be shaking things up for the better in the league

The NBA D-League has come to an agreement with Gatorade as the major sponsor of the league. This agreement did not come as a huge shock considering Adam Silver was very adamant about finding a partner for the Development League back in 2014. In the 2017-18 season, the D-League will be known as the G-League, the “G” standing for Gatorade.

The new G-League logo features a player dunking and in the bottom right corner, the Gatorade logo is featured in all of its beauty. This new logo will be featured on the game balls, on the courts, on the player’s jerseys, and other G-League memorabilia.

The new partnership does not mean that the other advertisements on the player’s jerseys will disappear. The league will still be having potential partners pay for advertisements on the jerseys.

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Gatorade’s Sports Science Insititute is the main component of this deal.

The Sports Science Insititute is Gatorade’s science department that is dedicated to making sure athlete’s stay healthy. They are constantly finding solutions to hydrations and furthering sports nutrition. The D-League and NBA along with other major sports league use Gatorade’s facility, so it would only make sense that a major partnership with Gatorade was in the works.

Here is the NBA’s deputy commissioner, Mark Tatum on the D-League’s new partner:

"What we started talking about was a true partnership and how we could leverage Gatorade’s sports science expertise to be able to enhance the performance — the on-court performance — of our athletes in the Development League,” Tatum told USA TODAY Sports by phone on Monday. “That’s how we started having these conversations, and then it emerged into entitlement discussions because it was so linked in terms of the efficacy that they could provide to our players, the ability to enhance their performance, and recovery. It made so much sense to us to … align even more closely the two different brands together."

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Hopefully the NBA D-League, or should I say “G-League”, continues to grow. In the future, every NBA team deserves a development team.