This week, a new sports league, OTE (Overtime Elite), announced after a year-long search, it has selected Atlanta as its home.
According to a release, OTE is committed to building an inclusive, diverse and equitable workforce, with a focus on hiring among communities of color and on employing people who live within Atlanta’s city limits.
The league is actively recruiting and hiring a staff of more than 100 people in the city, including basketball staff, educators, residential staff, food service, and additional support staff.
Planning is underway on the construction of a brand-new 103,000-square-foot facility in the city’s Atlantic Station neighborhood, where OTE’s players will train, study and compete. This project will create up to 400 construction jobs in metro Atlanta, at least 30% of which will be diverse hires.
Overtime, announced they’ll pay elite high school basketball players guaranteed salaries starting at $100,000. The company also announced last month it had raised $80 million in new funding from an all-star group of investors including Jeff Bezos, Drake and 25 NBA players including Trae Young, Cam Reddish, and Solomon Hill.
Friday, Five-star recruits Matt Bewley and Ryan Bewley just made a bombshell announcement: they’re signing with the new Overtime Elite pro basketball league. The 17-year-old twins are making sports history, becoming the first rising high school juniors to ever sign with a U.S. pro basketball league – and the very first players to sign with OTE.
Also announced this week, the transformational league will be in Atlanta. OTE is building a 103,000 square foot facility in Atlantic Station where players will train, study, and play.
“Matt Bewley and Ryan Bewley are extraordinary athletes, who represent a unique combination of competitiveness, drive, mental and physical toughness, and leadership. Their talent, along with the willingness and desire to learn, will position them to maximize their development on the way to long and successful pro careers,” said Brandon Williams, OTE’s EVP and Head of Basketball Operations. “These two are the types of foundational players that will make everyone around them better, as leaders on and off the court. Signing these two great pillars for our program is an exciting beginning.”
The Bewleys –who are among the top prospects in the class of 2023– are blazing their own path to the NBA, bypassing offers to play for Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Iowa State, and Miami in favor of going pro *now* through OTE.
