NCAA Drains Liga Endesa: Nearly Twenty Players Leave in Single Summer

What was once a trickle has become a flood. Nearly twenty players from Liga Endesa and its youth academies have crossed the Atlantic to the NCAA in recent months, marking a structural exodus rather than the usual seasonal departures.

The list touches nearly half the league: Gunars Grindvalds and Ilia Frolov left Real Madrid for UCLA and Arkansas; Barcelona loses Nikola Kusturica (UCLA), Sayon Keita (North Carolina), and Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje (Duke); Joventut loses Michael Ruzic (LSU) and Miguel Allen (Charlotte); and in the past week, Bassala Bagayoko from Bilbao (Texas Tech), Chiek Diallo from Baskonia (St. Bonaventure), and Lee Aaliya from UCAM Murcia (Ohio State) have joined the exodus. Dylan Bordón, Juan Fernández, Kostas Kostadinov, Max Gaspà, Gustav Knudsen, and others complete the list.

And the biggest name is still missing. Izan Almansa, released by Real Madrid this week, has been linked all summer with Gonzaga, though no university has officially confirmed his arrival to date.

Why it's happening: money and freedom of movement

The explanation comes down to two acronyms and one tool. The acronyms are NIL, the system that since 2021 has allowed college athletes to earn from their image rights and which recent revenue-sharing agreements have multiplied: today a player in a major program can earn six and even seven-figure sums, far above what a youth academy player or junior would earn in Europe. The tool is the transfer portal, which allows athletes to change universities every year without penalty, turning the NCAA into an annual free market.

For a Spanish club, the equation has become impossible to match: it cannot pay those salaries to a 19-year-old player, and the training compensation that protected youth academies does not apply against a university. The result is that the NCAA now signs where only the NBA used to sign.

It's not just Spain, and it's not just one-way traffic

The phenomenon is continental. This same summer, Virtus has lost Saliou Niang (LSU), Paris has lost Mouhamed Faye, Efes has lost Brice Dessert (LSU), Partizan has lost Mikka Muurinen (Arkansas), and Zalgiris has lost Kajus Mikalauskas and Mantas Rubstavicius. Our transfer market tables are filled with departures to universities.

But there is a second half of the circuit worth remembering, because it qualifies the drama: the NCAA also returns players. This summer, Liga Endesa has received back Mario Saint-Supéry (Gonzaga) at Valencia, Max Shulga (VCU, via Boston) at Real Madrid, and Lucas Marí (Vermont) also at Valencia—players developed here who return stronger, more polished, and with the American showcase on their résumé. The fundamental question is not whether talent leaves, but how much of it returns and under what conditions.

What the ACB can do

Meanwhile, clubs have three levers available: the right of first refusal, which allows them to recover the player when he wants to return, as Madrid just did with Eli John Ndiaye and will likely do with Almansa; early professional contracts with high clauses; and an uncomfortable reflection on playing time, because the NCAA's ultimate argument is not just money: it's that players actually play there. Almansa is leaving, among other reasons, because in two seasons of elite European basketball he barely saw the court.

The debate arrives amid ongoing negotiations between FIBA, the EuroLeague, and the NBA over the future of European basketball. If the continent does not find the formula to retain—or repatriate—its generation of 18 to 21-year-olds, the problem will cease to be about youth academies and become about national teams.