The lie of assuming that keeping basketball players in college for one, two, or more years will improve the game is rising again.
Why do well-meaning people, most of them considered sports “experts”, believe that the NBA and college basketball would benefit from such a rule?
The common reasons: young players would have more time to learn fundamentals, teamwork, and generally grow up more. But it isn’t necessarily true.
We need to wonder why basketball players are always the ones singled out for this kind of suggestion. No other sport, other than football, forces athletes to wait before aiming to earn a check with their talent. The NFL has good reason to put a delay in place–usually, a young man’s body is not prepared for professional punishment straight out of high school.
The National Basketball Association has no such excuse. For every one-and-down or straight-from-high-school player who was a complete bust, we can name just as many four-year college players who had talent but made no professional impact.
Think Tyson Chandler has been a waste after being drafted out of Dominguez
High School? I give you Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison–has his fundamental and mature play changed the league? Give me Sebastian Telfair… I show you Sean May, who stayed at UNC three years. You laugh at Anthony Bennett… don’t forget about four-year collegiate Trajan Langdon. This could go on for hours but it would get boring.
We are not making fun of anyone here; we’re simply pointing out that a long college career doesn’t guarantee anything. Especially not a rise in the quality in play. “The Logo” Jerry West told one radio host that the NBA was the worst he’s ever seen it, and everyone dog-piled onto his opinion. Even if West is correct, this “stay in school” proposal is a garbage, knee-jerk idea. If the game play is lacking, take it up with our dunk-a-minute sports highlight culture.
Media and fans love the flash, and we are now thirty-plus years into the 24-7 sports channels which
shrink games down into thirty seconds of slams and no-look passes… that means a generation or more of children have grown up thinking that is the way to play! Because that is what has entertained us. The best young players are scrutinized by media who are constantly searching for content… by coaches, scouts, and technology-addled fans who all want to discover the next big thing…
And then talking heads get on a microphone and criticize the kids for living what they saw (and see). No one ever looks at it from that angle.
The Bill Gates-Mark Zuckerberg example (We don’t tell talented teenagers in OTHER industries to
sit and wait) has been used a lot, and is now politely scoffed at, as it was by NBA commissioner Adam Silver on ESPNRadio’s Mike and Mike.
Fact is, that is a good argument… you can’t name many jobs in which, if someone is physically and mentally capable of performing, they are kept from working.
You can limit that reasoning to just sports and it’s still valid: No one stopped Michelle Wie or Jennifer Capriati. We didn’t tell Sidney Crosby to wait. Are the stars in other sports just a better quality of people than the average basketball player or what? Is it reaching to see a hidden subtext here?
given the constraints of the one-and-done generation,”
wrote a sports commentator about Jabari Parker.
Even if we concede that such a move would have some effect, we must also admit that it will take years to see that effect.
But the fact is, forcing players to stay in school won’t positively affect the game. If we really believe that young ballers have issues with basics, then things must be examined much earlier. The change should be made at local, high school and AAU levels, not three-quarters of the way through the development process of a player.
By the time he reaches his college freshman year, he is pretty much the player and person that he is going to be. A solid kid who is coachable and shares the ball will only continue and improve those qualities; a guy who wants to breakdown the entire opposing team off the dribble is unlikely to switch up his approach because that’s who he is. So whether he stays at the university one year or four, even a great coach’s touch will be limited.
Hopefully Silver and the NBA players reps will tinker with something else. The Association seems to have set its sights on one day competing with the ‘reed in the wind’ NFL, which business-wise is a worthy goal… but on a social level, is guaranteed to make a mess.