Now that the college basketball season has ended, the next few weeks entail players deciding whether they will enter the NBA Draft or stay in college. It’s even become a whole different game within the sport.
Players analyze the people who are entering the draft, look at the number of players at their position, listen to the wrong people and then make the biggest decision in their lives.
And it’s become even more confusing with the implementation of the new one-year rule, where players must be one year removed from high school before entering the draft.
At first, I liked the idea. It forced kids who weren’t ready for the NBA to go to college for a year. During their freshman seasons, they could see whether they were ready for the upgrade in talent or if they enjoyed school enough to stay another couple seasons.
But when it comes down to it, the system is extremely problematic — many of these kids have no desire to play college basketball, and these schools who recruit them will pay. And the college game will pay while the NBA reaps the benefits
I love seeing players like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in the NCAA Tournament just as much as the next guy, but recruiting these one-year free agent-type players is going to change the entire game. Winning two straight championships will be about as rare as North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough getting whistled for a travel.
One of the biggest problems with the system is that these “student-athletes” don’t even have to go to class during the second semester. They can play basketball for their entire freshman years and then not go to class because the semester grades aren’t released until after the season.
Just as an example, players like North Carolina’s Ty Lawson, if he chose to, wouldn’t have to go to class in the second semester — and he can still play during the entire season.
During the season, Bobby Knight told the Associated Press that the rule is “the worst thing that’s happened to college basketball since I’ve been coaching.” And for a guy that’s been through a lot and has the most wins in men’s college basketball history, that really says a lot.
“Because now you can have a kid come to school for a year and play basketball, and he doesn’t even have to go to class,” Knight told the AP earlier in the year.
“He certainly doesn’t have to go to class the second semester. I’m not exactly positive about the first semester. But he would not have to attend a single class the second semester to play through the whole second semester of basketball.”
Not only that, the majority of these kids who only want to be in the NBA will show they don’t care about the school through other means.
It’s bound to happen. When these top-notch athletes attend schools where they don’t want to be, they will commit NCAA violations.
Sure, it happens plenty — and many schools don’t get caught. But when an 18-year-old freshman star is faced with $50,000 for him and his family versus holding true to a commitment to the rules at a school that he doesn’t care for, what will he do?
If he takes the $50,000, he has money for himself and his family. Ask Reggie Bush’s parents about the benefits of taking the money. Their son still won an NCAA title, and he’s now making millions in the NFL. Southern Cal might suffer, but he’s off the hook.
Soon, college basketball will become the developmental league for its best players. Even though they haven’t declared for this year’s draft, it already is for stars like Oden and Durant.
Anything but the one-year rule would be better. Allow the athletes to either go pro out of high school or make them stay for at least another year or two.
College football forces players to be three years removed from high school. With baseball, there are four requirements. Players can enter after high school. If they go to college, they can enter after their junior or senior years. Anyone who is 21 within 45 days of the draft and any player out of junior college may enter no matter how long he has been there.
Rarely do you hear problems about these two drafts.
Either let players go pro whenever they choose or force them to stay in college longer. It will bring players to college basketball who care about the sport and keep out the OJ Mayos.
