Nate Oats isn't the type of person to care what those outside of his program think of him, but the Alabama head coach has taken a lot of criticism in recent weeks for his decision to add Charles Bediako back to his roster after a restraining order gained him temporary eligibility.
That ended when Bediako lost his preliminary injunction case against the NCAA, and after five games, Bediako will no longer play for the Crimson Tide. Oats has been publicly critical of the decision by both the NCAA and the court.
His recent comments about the level of play in the G-League drew the ire of former NBA All-Star and Kentucky legend Jamal Mashburn.
"There's a reason there's a lot of G-League players trying to come back to college," Oats said on Tuesday. "The money's a lot better. The development is a lot better. You get a full-time dietician, full-time strength coach, you're not traveling commercial flights and spending all your time in airports. ...He's here, he's in school. We're going to try and help him gain weight back that he lost since he was in the G-League. We're going to continue to help his basketball development and continue to help his development as a student-athlete."
Those comments didn't go over well with Mashburn, who scoffed when asked for his opinion on the TNT studio show, and then lit into Oats for it.
"He's selling a lot there. He's selling a lot," Mashburn said. "Obviously, the money is better. You're not going to become a better pro by going down to play in college. It's just not happening. The pro game is a different game. I'm pretty much tired of the subject at this particular point. The rules are the rules. The kid went pro. ...He gave up his eligibility. That's the bottom line of it. He's trying to win games. I understand what Nate Oats is trying to do, but at the end of the day, that was just a bunch of nonsense right there."
Jamal Mashburn calls Nate Oats' comments on the G-League "nonsense"
Mashburn never played in the G-League himself. After winning SEC Player of the Year in 1993, he was the No. 4 pick in the NBA Draft and went on to a productive 12-year NBA career that included an appearance in the 2003 NBA All-Star game.
But Mashburn certainly has inside information on the G-League. His son, Jamal Mashburn Jr., is a current G-League player for the Long Island Nets.
But that doesn't mean Mashburn is correct with his comments, either.
There is a reason so many G-League players are attempting to come back to college basketball. Money is certainly a factor, but the G-League doesn't have a rich history of player development for guys who skipped the college game, either. Especially for players like Bediako, who were on the margins and likely not believed to be part of a team's future. He was just another body.
Bediako did give up his eligibility. He made a poor choice at 20 years old off bad advice and in a drastically different landscape of college basketball than the one he returned to for five games in 2026.
The system is rigged against players like Bediako, particularly when players who were drafted in the same draft class as Bediako have been granted eligibility to play college basketball. That's the whole point that continues to get ignored by Mashburn and so many others.