This Columbia basketball star left high school for new pro league. He has no regrets
Jazian Gortman has no regrets on his decision to give up his senior season of high school to play basketball professionally.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss being with his Keenan High School teammates.
Gortman, who was a top-10 national prospect for the Class of 2022, was on the bench with Keenan for a couple games when the Raiders played in the Chick-fil-A Classic in December at River Bluff High School. He was a vocal onlooker, encouraging his teammates and even talking to them during timeouts.
“I miss playing for Keenan. It was a real fun experience playing for coach Zach Norris. Nothing more you can ask for,” Gortman told The State.
Gortman was a key contributor as a sophomore on the team’s 2020 Class 3A championship team and led the Raiders in scoring (23.1 ppg) and steals (3.3) last season in helping them to the upper state finals as a junior in 2021.
This year, in what should be the 17-year-old Gortman’s traditional senior year at Keenan, he’s instead playing professionally in the Overtime Elite league. It’s a decision he hopes best prepares him for a full-time career in the NBA.
Keenan has had its share of struggles this year without him. The Raiders went 1-2 in the Classic and are not in the latest statewide Class 3A rankings. Still, Raiders coach Zach Norris said it was fun to have Gortman with the team last week.
“It would be better if he was over there playing for us,” Norris joked. “But he is my man, always comes by when he is home and talks to the kids and everything. They look up to him, too.
“He is doing what he wants to do. He is playing basketball on a high level. I just hope and pray that he makes it.”
So, what is Overtime Elite?
Gortman announced in August that he would pass up his senior year to play in the new Overtime Elite pro league. Prior to his decision, Gortman took official visits to Florida State and Wake Forest, and South Carolina was recruiting him very hard. 247Sports ranked Gortman as the No. 8 prospect for the Class of 2022 at the time of his announcement.
Overtime Elite is based out of Atlanta and gives prospects another option — if they don’t want to play college basketball — to train, play competitively, take classes and get paid. The NBA requires players to have one year of college or professional experience. Enter leagues like Ignite of the NBA’s G League and now Overtime Elite, which is in its first year of existence.
The NBA G League Ignite — affiliated with the G League, the NBA’s developmental league — is for high school graduates and college players. Three players from the Ignite league were taken in this year’s draft, including No. 2 overall pick Jalen Green.
Overtime Elite is for high school juniors, seniors and players from overseas. The league bills itself as “transformative” with a focus on player development, education and “economic empowerment.”
Its rise has been featured nationally with articles in Time and Forbes, with both publications highlighting the league’s salary structure. The recent Times article came with the headline: “Inside the New Basketball League Paying High Schoolers Six-Figure Salaries.”
Each athlete receives a salary of at least $100,000 per year, plus bonuses and shares of equity in Overtime, as well as revenue from sales of jerseys, trading cards and video games. Stadium’s Jeff Goodman reported that Gortman is expected to earn $650,000 this year and has a deal for two years.
“Say what you want, but that’s a lot of money for a high school kid to turn down,” Goodman posted to Twitter last summer.
Gortman told The State last week that he gets paid every two weeks, and a management team — which includes his parents and his uncle — handles the finances..
The league itself is sponsored by Overtime media company, which was founded in 2016 and produces original sports content on various social media outlets. Financial backers in Overtime include Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, rapper Drake and NBA stars including the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young and the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker.
Overtime began the season with 27 players in the program that were split among three teams — Team Elite, Team OTE and Team Overtime. Gortman plays for Team Overtime, which is coached by former Providence and NBA veteran Ryan Gomes. Former Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie is Overtime’s head coach for the whole program and director of player development.
If an Overtime player does not make it to the NBA or play professionally overseas, Overtime pledges to pay $100,000 toward college education. Each player receives full health care coverage as well as disability insurance coverage, providing financial protection if they are injured and it hinders their ability to play professionally.
“It is a new era and new wave of basketball. In college you are doing (name, image and likeness), but we are teaching them pro habits day in and day out,” Gomes told The State in November. “It is about learning the game and getting ready to go to the next level. This is a fast track for getting them prepared for the pro life, whatever level they make it to after this. ... It is going to be around for a long time.”
Life of a pro
Gortman and the other Overtime players arrived in Atlanta in September to start training for the season, which began in late October and will end in March. Home games are played at Overtime’s 1,100-seat arena, which is part of a 103,000-square facility in midtown Atlanta.
Overtime held a “pro day” before the season began for more than 60 NBA scouts. Those scouts are expected to be in and out to watch the teams throughout the year. Dominican Republic’s Jean Monterro, who plays with Gortman on Team Overtime, is projected to be taken in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Most of the games will be played at the Overtime Arena, with games either against the other Overtime teams or high school prep schools from across the country.
Rapper Two Chainz attended Overtime’s opening weekend, which included a contest against Mikey Williams, a top-15 prospect who is playing for Vertical Academy in North Carolina.
“Never had a celebrity pull up to one of my games I played in before,” Gortman told The State in November.
Gortman and Overtime played games at Combine Academy in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on Nov. 1 and 2. The two-day event featured Overtime’s teams going against squads from Combine Academy, Winston-Salem Christian and Liberty Heights. Overtime teams are scheduled to travel to Ohio and Florida in the coming months.
Charlotte Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak and other Hornets front office personnel came to see Overtime games in November.
A typical day when there’s not a game, Gortman said, begins with waking up about 7:30 a.m. for COVID testing followed by breakfast at the team’s facility. He lives in an apartment with a few teammates.
Overtime provides players three meals a day. Once at the facility, players do academics for three to four hours and then practice, weightlifting and film study for another three to four hours. Some days the schedule is reversed, with practice first.
Overtime players take the required courses to receive a state of Georgia high school diploma, which Gortman is on track to do this year.
Gortman said he doesn’t do too much outside of basketball. He does see his mom, who lives now in Atlanta, once a week or so.
“Being there with no parents around forces you to be disciplined. Whatever I have on task that day, I work hard and do it,” Gortman said. “I’m loving the pro system, the pro atmosphere. I look forward to keep getting better and progressing. I have learned a number of things. I learned the defensive concepts under Coach Ollie. All the other coaches have taught me how to be a better point guard and lead the team.
“It has been a fun experience. ... I’m just in the gym all day. That is the best thing for me is to have 24-hour access to the gym so I can be there any time I want.”
Gomes said he didn’t know much about Gortman before meeting him, but he’s been impressed so far. The 6-foot-1 guard is averaging 24.4 points, seven assists and 6.3 rebounds this season.
“He has that ‘it’ factor and wants to play on a high level. He wants to play in an environment where people are against him and are on his back,” Gomes said. “He is a great defender. His athleticism is at the top of the chart and shooting. In the two and half months I have been around him, he has excelled at all facets of the game, but his energy is unmatched. Everyone gets juiced up when Jazian is out in the passing lane and running in transition.”
Pro life not for everyone
Gortman is believed to be the first player from Columbia to go straight from high school to the pros since Jermaine O’Neal did so in the 1990s. O’Neal, who played at Eau Claire High School, was a first-round pick by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1996 draft and played 18 years in the NBA. But that was when players could bypass college and go straight to the NBA.
That rule might be coming back, but for now high-profile players must pick between the other domestic or foreign professional leagues and college. Gortman isn’t eligible for the 2022 NBA Draft because of his age, so he can return to Overtime for one more season or play somewhere else professionally.
Gortman was one of three top-50 national prospects to leave the Columbia area in the past few months. Blythewood’s Julian Phillips is playing his senior season at Link Academy in Missouri. Phillips, ranked No. 14 by 247SportsComposite for 2022, signed with LSU in November.
Gray Collegiate’s Brandon Gardner, ranked No. 44 in the 2023 class, left for Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Gortman won’t be the last player from the Midlands to be courted by professional leagues. Overtime and the NBA G League Ignite already have reached out to Ridge View’s GG Jackson, one of the top prospects for the Class of 2023. Lexington’s Cam Scott is one of the top players in the country for 2024.
Gortman saw Jackson at the Chick-fil-A Classic but said the two didn’t talk that much about playing professionally. But he has spoken to a few other players about it and offers pretty simple advice: Don’t regret the choice you make.
“Whatever the best route for them is to take it, have no regrets,” Gortman said. “Pray about, sleep on it. Whatever decision you make, you make the best of it.
“I never doubted my decision, but this decision was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
