Sports are entertainment. When you are no longer able to entertain, your career is over. In sports, namely basektball, your career last from age 18-35. In the United States, from years 18-21, the NCAA wants you to entertain for free while the NCAA, universities, and coaches rack up millions of dollars. This system is unfair. If I was 17-18, in highschool, ranked in the top ten in the country, and I could get money overseas, I'm gone.
Last year, Brandon Jennings made over a million dollars playing in Italy. Jennings was a guy that was supposed to be the next great point guard from the University of Arizona and what would he have gotten for that? NOT A DIME. Did going overseas hurt his draft stock? No, he went 10th. Did he learn more by playing with professionals for a full season, instead of college amateurs? Yes, he was playing against grown men who were paid to play basketball and feed their families; not against amateurs who were too concerned about getting back to their dorm rooms to play XBOX Live. Did he capitilize on his ability to play basketball to provide for his family? Absolutely.
As college basketball fans, we offend criticize players for leaving school too early to play in the NBA or overseas. If I'm an engineering major with two years left to graduate and a company offers me the same amount of money if I had my degree, I'm gone. What's the point of staying in school when the money is already on the table?
I second this.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thoughts on the possible merit of playing overseas. However, your engineering analogy seems imperfect for this situation. You could certainly take the engineering job, but if you ever wanted to get another job or go to grad school, your options would be severely limited. Companies would want to know why you never got your degree, and clearly grad school wouldn't be an option without an undergrad degree. Now, I realize that a college degree is unnecessary for a professional athlete, but let's not be too hasty in our attack on the U.S.'s college athletic conglomerate. Let me point out two merits of playing college ball versus going overseas:
ReplyDelete1. Going to college and playing XBOX Live in your dorm is actually pretty fun. Obviously you don't get paid for it, but its not such a bad lifestyle. You're getting a free education, free food, free housing, free Nike shit, and you're a god-king on most campuses. Throw in the chance to work with a Coach K, a Roy Williams, or a Tom Izzo, and you have a pretty good way to spend a year or two. And let's not forget marketability. I'm not sure which sneaker company Blake Griffin signed with, but I guarantee you he is more marketable than Jennings. He spent the past year lighting it up in the Big 12 instead of playing 20 min/gm and shooting 27% from 3 pt. range for Lottomatica Roma. Granted, Jennings got paid well for his 7.6 PPG, but the casual basketball fan doesn't know who the hell he is. This would likely not be the case had he gone to Arizona. What I'm trying to say is that if playing college ball raises your level of fame (and marketability), maybe its worth enduring the financial exploitation.
2. I have never seen any evidence that a European pro league provides a better basketball education for aspiring NBA players than a major D1 college program does. Schools like Arizona (whom Jennings spurned) routinely churn out NBA players and play against elite competition. The guys Jennings faces in Europe (mostly) aren't good enough for the NBA. Granted, they are seasoned veterans with higher basketball IQs than most college players, but athletically there is certainly a gap. At Arizona, Jennings would have faced the likes of Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday twice a year (at the very least). If you consider the different rules of the European game, I have to wonder whether the NBA game will come as a giant shock to Jennings. The speed, the caliber of athlete, the rule differences. Not to mention the 3-point line being farther away...
I'm not trying to insult Jennings; I think he has the tools to be a good player. I'm just saying that going overseas to chase a paycheck may not, in the long run, make him a wealthier man or a better player.