John Calipari has it all wrong. Completely backwards. He’s shot an air ball.
Discussion about expanding the NBA Draft and the developmental “G-League” are not changes that will ruin college basketball.
It will make the game better.
It will put the “college” back in college hoops. There are a several key reasons why.
To start, this precedes and promotes the inevitable end of the terrible “one and done” rule that has been such a disaster for the sport since it was implemented in 2006. Both the NBA league office and the NBA Players Association are said to be ready to nix it. Perhaps in time for the 2022 NBA draft, if not sooner.
No one likes the one-and-done concept, not the players who are forced to pretend to be college students for a semester, not the coaches who have to restock much of their rosters on the fly every season, not the NBA teams and coaches. Nobody.
Except maybe Calipari, who’s had great success at Kentucky under the current set or rules.
One and done has been embraced by Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and a few others, but it has not been successful for most of the NCAA schools. Especially the ones that require student-athletes to be, you know, students.
Many of us – including NBA commish Adam Silver – used to subscribe to the idea that making a kid attend college was a good idea. Not that long ago, Silver was in favor of increasing the NBA age limit from 19 to 20 in order to force kids stay in school at least a year longer. It makes sense. The longer a kid stays in school, the more ready he is for the NBA — and for life in general.
It sounds great in theory, and it should work like that. But we all watched guys like Ben Simmons make a mockery out of the idea of being a student at all. Attend a few classes for a few weeks in order to stay eligible for one season. Progress toward a degree? Nah.
It’s actually better for everyone to have college student-athletes be guys who desire a college education. They’ll stay in school for the duration – perhaps earn a degree – while making it possible for college coaches to build actual sustained rosters without a nearly complete yearly turnover. It will also level the playing field. Blue chip recruits may opt to turn pro rather than attend blue blood programs for multiple years.
Could that be why Calipari is so against it?
Just as importantly, those who don’t want to go to college – and we should all agree that college isn’t for everyone – can launch into adulthood and the pay-for-play (including “Name, Likeness and Image payments) set up right out of high school. Start making money and paying those bills and taxes immediately. No more fake college students.
On the court, the only benefit to the one-and-done system was that it slightly improved the quality of play in the NBA. Key word: slightly.
In a perfect world, kids would play three or four years of college ball for good college coaches and then be far more ready for the rigors of the professional game.
For every Kobe Byrant or LeBron James, who were ready for the pro game as teenagers, there were a dozen who thought they were, but weren’t. Guys who really could have benefited from playing at least a couple of seasons in a top-notch college program. They weren’t ready for the pros yet, and it showed on the court. The one and done rule helped alleviate that somewhat.
But getting rid of one and done in this manner – having what is essentially a “minor league” option like baseball and hockey – and allowing kids who want to turn pro to do so out of high school to do so and still land in a developmental situation when they don’t turn out to be the next LeBron, is the next best thing to going through a college program.
Now those kids who want to play for a paycheck right away can do so even if they aren’t yet NBA ready just yet.
The quality of the game of basketball will benefit at both levels.
If getting paid cash money to play your sport is more important than getting a college education, then great. In baseball, the young athlete has that choice. If getting paid for the use of their “Likeness, Name or Image” is what you want, professional sports gives you plenty of opportunity to do so.
But that shouldn’t be part of being a college student-athlete.
Finally, the NBA and NCAA will be giving young basketball players a choice. And everyone will win.
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
