Selena Roberts: The N.B.A.'s New Age Rule Will Get Old in a Hurry - New York Times
It's 19, not 18 anymore. It's one year of college, not a prom-and-done proposition now. It is an ill-conceived piece of phony feel-good legislation on every level. A year to mature, a season to grow, the N.B.A. caretakers will tell you. As if a freshman year is an introduction to adulthood and responsibility instead of beer bongs and campus gals who aspire to be Carolina Panthers cheerleaders. As if it would have been better for good-citizen LeBron James to put on a freshman 15 rather than for Carmelo Anthony to put in a cameo at Syracuse before appearing in the underground “Snitch” DVD as an N.B.A. player.The Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal eloquently described the age limit last year as an unconstitutional rule directed at black athletes. Together, with the recent Mister Rogers dress code, the N.B.A. is precariously close to being perceived as a league trying to brush itself with a whitening system.While the National Hockey League promotes the wholesome Sidney Crosby, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association benefits from Michelle Wie's pro decision on her Sweet 16th, the N.B.A. is hoping its future stars of the baggy-jean age outgrow their hip-hop phase with a year in the hands of a college coach. Let Bob Knight teach, mold and scold them into scouts. Let Mike Krzyzewski shower them with warm hugs as he transforms them into upstanding Dukies. Let college be the N.B.A.'s fly-by farm system. As a reward, top college coaches will receive a teenage savior on their roster. But the N.B.A.'s added rule is not college basketball's gain.
...The N.B.A.'s new age requirement doesn't encourage a cozy connection between a college coach and a high school star. It only confuses the roles between diva player and diva coach.
Zing!
NCAA sports are sort of a joke anyway. Why don't the Universities admit the obvious, and start paying their athletes? When I was attending the University of Texas for all those many years, the football players (and other jocks) got first dibs on all classes, especially the crowded ones, had free tutors provided them, often never actually had to attend classes, and frequently used 'proxies' to take their tests for them. Of course, none of this was officially sanctioned, but I don't recall anyone being kicked out of the program for abusing the 'student-athelete' myth. Really, why even bother pretending? The athletic programs are worth astronomical amounts of money, certainly for successful teams, but I never have heard of any of that money being funneled into classrooms.
Rant aside, the NBA should continue building a minor league farm system if that's what it takes to teach the fundamentals of team basketball, but stop with the phony '19 year olds are intrinsically better than 18 year olds' bullshite.
Tags: Basketball, /corruption
I was a graduate teaching assistant at Temple University from '92-94. At the time the Owls were ranked in the NCAA Top Ten, and they made it to the Elite Eight and lost to the Mich Fab Five by only a few points in the tourney. On that squad were several future pros: Aaron McKie, Rick Brunson, Eddie Jones...
I had one of those basketball players in a remedial English course and the stuff that went on was eye-opening. I was offered free lunches to "chat" with coaches and tutors about student progress, I got deals on season tickets. Amazing! My student athlete told me that after every home game alumni would approach the players with "private gifts" like clothing and sneakers and gift certificates amounting to hundreds of dollars.