Brian Fowler Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Let us never forget, Rick is making "ballplayer money." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 It looked like the director of ESPN had a seizure on PTI today, it flashed from the show to a still picture of Berman, to a commercial, back to the show, to Berman, and finally the show all in about ninety seconds. For a half a second a thought something big had come down. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Did Whitlock really write this? Where are the Wire and Jeff George references? //espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10377689/whitlock-david-stern-was-bully-got-lucky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Did Whitlock really write this? Where are the Wire and Jeff George references? //espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10377689/whitlock-david-stern-was-bully-got-lucky A great NBA commissioner during Stern's reign would've forced a conversation about ways to keep elite basketball players in college for three or four years. Stern should've been the outspoken champion of ending shamateur athletics. He should've worked tirelessly to figure out how to financially reward Kobe for attending Duke for four years. And if he did that Whitlock would be righting about how its crap that Stern and the league make players like Kobe/James/Durant stay in college when everyone knows there pro-ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Mann Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 At least Whitlock didn't defend Maurice Clarett's attempt to go one-and-done into the NFL or anything. .Oh, wait.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewar Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'm not sure what college has to do with becoming a professional athlete. If they want to become an accountant, sure you need a degree, so you need to go to school. You want to dunk a basketball, and are good enough to get paid to do it? Why on earth should be you be forced to go to college? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'm not sure what college has to do with becoming a professional athlete. If they want to become an accountant, sure you need a degree, so you need to go to school. You want to dunk a basketball, and are good enough to get paid to do it? Why on earth should be you be forced to go to college? They don't HAVE to go to college, they just can't to the NBA for a year. The NBA(and the players association) have the right to set terms of employment, in this case being one year away from high school. A player can go to europe, or china or anywhere. An interesting wrinkle would be allowing them to draft high school kids but making them play in the D-league for a whole year. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 They could set up like baseball--if you think you're good enough w/o college, be part of the D-League for a year of so (if the NBA moved toward that), then move up. If you choose college, you stay 2-3 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'm not sure what college has to do with becoming a professional athlete. If they want to become an accountant, sure you need a degree, so you need to go to school. You want to dunk a basketball, and are good enough to get paid to do it? Why on earth should be you be forced to go to college? I agree with much of what he says about the NCAA and college athletics, but forcing people to go to school for something they can get paid for is just dumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewar Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'm not sure what college has to do with becoming a professional athlete. If they want to become an accountant, sure you need a degree, so you need to go to school. You want to dunk a basketball, and are good enough to get paid to do it? Why on earth should be you be forced to go to college? They don't HAVE to go to college, they just can't to the NBA for a year. The NBA(and the players association) have the right to set terms of employment, in this case being one year away from high school. A player can go to europe, or china or anywhere. An interesting wrinkle would be allowing them to draft high school kids but making them play in the D-league for a whole year. . . There's zero reason why these kids can't be drafted when their high school class graduates. ZERO. Baseball and hockey draft kids straight out of high school all the time, nobody's jumping up and down trying to steer them into colleges. The MIGHTY STERN decided that since a bunch of his owners were drafting a bunch of bums straight out of high school, that there needed to be a one-year rule, not to benefit the players, but to save his stupid owners money. The NFL being able to use college football as a minor league all these years is a joke too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Brandon Jennings played in Italy for a year before declaring for the draft. When he was over there, his minutes were inconsistent at best.Jeremy Tyler left high school a year early to play two years overseas. His first year was with Macabai Tel Aviv, one of Europe's powers. He barely played and quit on the team. He then played in Japan's pro league (which isn't very good) and barely averaged over double figures. He's now floundering on the bench for the Knicks.But NCAA basketball has the best non-NBA coaching and the best chance for minutes to actually develop. And, probably more importantly, players also become a marketable name for a NBA team.It's essentially interning for a year or two. But the difference is that interning for most people means stuffing envelopes for some low-mid-manager while college basketball is a billion dollar enterprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorceressKnight Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I'm not sure what college has to do with becoming a professional athlete. If they want to become an accountant, sure you need a degree, so you need to go to school. You want to dunk a basketball, and are good enough to get paid to do it? Why on earth should be you be forced to go to college? But the big issue there is- any schooling has nothing to do with becoming a professional athlete either. If you say "Why should a player who's good enough to be paid to dunk a basketball be forced to go to college", then by definition, that question can also be brought down to "If you're a 10th grader or 11th grader who's a red-hot high school prospect, and you're good enough to get paid to do it- then why on earth should you be forced to get your high school diploma and not be allowed to drop out of school to enter the WWE Draft?" And from there, the slope can go further and further down (Players in Europe are allowed to sign to soccer or basketball teams' development systems as children and rise the ranks, even making their teams as young as 14 (like Rubio did.) We know that the ranking systems for prospects is down as low as 5th and 6th graders right now. With those, why can't the parent of a top prospect 5th grader decide to emigrate their family to Europe and sign their kid to a Euroleague team?" Is it perfect, no? But you need to draw a line SOMEWHERE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Let's be honest, though--how many American basketball players 17 and younger will actually be good enough to play in the NBA right now? There's probably only been a handful over the league's history that could have given it a legitimate shot, the most recent being LeBron. HS kids would not be considered by simply not being good enough to even try out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 To me the biggest problem you have is there are two group fighting for the same thing with both sides unwilling to give much ground. On one hand you have the Leagues who want a semi free farm system to be able to weed out the players who might be great in High School but who's skill set once tested in major NCAA competition goes down hill. On the other hand you have the NCAA who wants there players to be 'amateurs' (unless there playing baseball) and wants to be able to make zillions of dollars from broadcasters. To me the best system or at least a better system would one where the NCAA opens the doors to a semi-pro basketball/football players by that I mean the NBA/NFL allow teams to start drafting kids after there Senior year/age 18 of high school. Those players can then sign contracts with there team with an option for those players to go to college and play there sport while going to school. Those players would be held to the same standards as other players for academics and such BUT would not be eligible for athletic scholarships, I would also create a nationally standardized program that would be available to all athletes that consisted of things such as public speaking, money management, contract law, history of there particular sport and such, this would be in place of a particular major. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 @richarddeitsch: Waking up in Sochi to the news CBS landed the NFL's Thursday Night package. Nice get for CBS Sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Comedian Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 There's zero reason why these kids can't be drafted when their high school class graduates. ZERO. Baseball and hockey draft kids straight out of high school all the time, nobody's jumping up and down trying to steer them into colleges. The MIGHTY STERN decided that since a bunch of his owners were drafting a bunch of bums straight out of high school, that there needed to be a one-year rule, not to benefit the players, but to save his stupid owners money. I agree. I also think that initial grouping of Garnett, Kobe, TMac, Jermaine O'Neal, Harrington, and Rashard Lewis gave the owners unrealistic expectations of what a HS kid could do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 There's zero reason why these kids can't be drafted when their high school class graduates. ZERO. Baseball and hockey draft kids straight out of high school all the time, nobody's jumping up and down trying to steer them into colleges. The MIGHTY STERN decided that since a bunch of his owners were drafting a bunch of bums straight out of high school, that there needed to be a one-year rule, not to benefit the players, but to save his stupid owners money. I agree. I also think that initial grouping of Garnett, Kobe, TMac, Jermaine O'Neal, Harrington, and Rashard Lewis gave the owners unrealistic expectations of what a HS kid could do. Don't forget Moses Malone too. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Shawn Kemp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewar Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Kemp went college, just didn't play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 To me the biggest problem you have is there are two group fighting for the same thing with both sides unwilling to give much ground. On one hand you have the Leagues who want a semi free farm system to be able to weed out the players who might be great in High School but who's skill set once tested in major NCAA competition goes down hill. On the other hand you have the NCAA who wants there players to be 'amateurs' (unless there playing baseball) and wants to be able to make zillions of dollars from broadcasters. To me the best system or at least a better system would one where the NCAA opens the doors to a semi-pro basketball/football players by that I mean the NBA/NFL allow teams to start drafting kids after there Senior year/age 18 of high school. Those players can then sign contracts with there team with an option for those players to go to college and play there sport while going to school. Those players would be held to the same standards as other players for academics and such BUT would not be eligible for athletic scholarships, I would also create a nationally standardized program that would be available to all athletes that consisted of things such as public speaking, money management, contract law, history of there particular sport and such, this would be in place of a particular major. This might actually be the best solution to the "NCAA makes gadzillions of money off kids/HS Grads aren't mentally mature enough to play Pro-ball" problem I've ever read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Or you can do it like baseball does and not have the players sign but the team drafting them retains their rights the whole time they're at a four-year school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sublime Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 The NFL wouldn't want to go for that since they've built the draft up as an event that can change the fortune of a team overnight. If all the best players of a draft class either have their rights held be a team or are gonna be in school for x years it lessens the drama and therefore the precious ratings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LooseCannon Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 Or you can do it like baseball does and not have the players sign but the team drafting them retains their rights the whole time they're at a four-year school. That's not how baseball does it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Or you can do it like baseball does and not have the players sign but the team drafting them retains their rights the whole time they're at a four-year school. That's not how baseball does it. OK. Did they change it? I thought it used to be if the guy you drafted went to college, you kept his rights for four years or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blitzkrieg Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Or you can do it like baseball does and not have the players sign but the team drafting them retains their rights the whole time they're at a four-year school. That's not how baseball does it. OK. Did they change it? I thought it used to be if the guy you drafted went to college, you kept his rights for four years or something. Via mlb.com: A Club generally retains the rights to sign a selected player until 11:59 PM (EDT) August 15, or until the player enters, or returns to, a four-year college on a full-time basis. A player who is drafted and does not sign with the Club that selected him may be drafted again at a future year's Draft, so long as the player is eligible for that year's Draft. A Club may not select a player again in a subsequent year, unless the player has consented to the re-selection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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