Yahoo article: "NBA lifts 'big middle finger to the NCAA' with move to secure top hoops prospects"
Yahoo's Pete Thamel put out a good article today addressing the decisions of Jalen Green and Isaiah Todd entering the NBA's G-League and what it means for the future of college basketball.
LINK: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/the-nb-as-lifts-a-middle-finger-to-college-basketball-205205349.html
I figured this would come at some point, but it's coming much more quickly than I imagined. It's been a long time coming. My favorite quote from the article:
"In many ways, Silver was smart to do this to keep top players like LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton from going overseas. The NBA realized that no good business would ship its biggest stars to another continent. Meanwhile, the NCAA hasn’t figured out a way to court and accommodate basketball’s top stars, but we can look forward to a committee to assemble so they can announce nothing of particular note sometime in 2029. That’s the NCAA way: Keep the status quo and hope the issues go away."
I see this as a nothing but a positive trend. Hopefully all kids who want to just play basketball (and have the ability) will be able to. Ideally, the clubs should have a development program they do in European Football leagues and start from early on (which will get rid of a lot of shadiness out of the system).
I hadn’t looked at it that way, but I think you’re right. The super phenoms go “G”, make money right away, the rest stay and battle for collegiate rights to a title, maybe both get a what they want.
I think the NCAA is going to push back on this and say that the risk needs to be shifted back to the individual NBA teams drafting/acquiring these players. Right now the league itself is buying out these players from attending college, which is pretty crazy.
the ncaa can't do a damn thing about this.
As it stands now, the NCAA acts as a free farm system for the NBA. So I don't think they are absolutely powerless in this regard.
They are powerless. They can't prevent a player from leaving college and turning pro.
and tell me what the ncaa can do? make players stay 4 years? pay back schollies? good luck with that.
They are actually giving them 4 years of a school of their choosing as well ..
Agree here, there should be some kind of compromise. Maybe this was just that? I'm not sure the NCAA can dictate anything that the professional leagues do.
If the NBA said draft age is now 18 and we're going to 3 rounds instead of 2, would the NCAA be able to do anything?
What if football drafted "rights" to players like hockey does? Wonder if it would come to that at all?
The NCAA and NBA should get together and come up with a plan where, by the start of their senior year in HS, players have to make a choice whether they are going to attend college or play professionally when they graduate.
If they opt to play professionally, whether it’s the NBA, G-league, Europe, then they forfeit their amateur status and coaches know this kid isn’t coming. That way they don’t waste time on recruiting them only for the player to bail out at the last minute to play pro.
If they opt to go to college, then the NBA says they can’t jump to the draft, or the G league, until at least the end of their sophomore year and that mostly eliminates the 1 and done possibilities.
Something has to be done because this whole “Wait until the very last second to see if a kid you’ve recruited is actually going to follow through on his commitment, or bolt for the pros” isn’t a sustainable option IMO.
What's the NBA's incentive to sign up for this versus just doing whatever they want and leaving the NCAA holding their bag?
The main benefit is doing the right thing for the schools and fans. Which may not be a huge motivating factor for the NBA.
But there’s not a real downside to the NBA doing it either.
No, the NBA's real benefit is having the ability to scout young players at an earlier stage in their pro career than it otherwise would and not having to go overseas to do it. It means saving money in the long run because no team owns the rights to these players and is not tied to their success or failure until they are drafted.
The NBA has benefited from an unfunded minor league system for years with the college game footing the cost of player education and development. And the failure of the NCAA has been to work out an agreement that recognized this and dealt appropriately with amateur and pro rights conflict resolution.
Depending on your point of view, this failure has either been a good or bad thing. Whether it ultimately works, of course, is whether you can sustain minor league teams in which your top paid players are the least experienced and educated and expect them to grow into highly productive pros through that process. I think its a gamble as any pro draft or recruitment class is for a college program.
Double post
I mean, good. They are better off competing against each other for talent (advantage: paychecks) than being in this Devil's Bargain where the NCAA agrees to run a free farm system for kids that have zero interest in being college students and get cut out of the profits anyway.
I'm for anything that helps end the student-athlete farce in the revenue sports.
Agreed. It makes sense that if these kids have a market value they should be able to get paid. It would be nice for them to play in college, but if they don't care about college and/or are not going to benefit from college (see UNC "classes"), and there is no way to regulate payments, it doesn't make sense for them to be in college.
Right when we get a coach who can recruit these athletes, they start leaving for G league.
The absolute tippy top of peak Michigan sports.
The NCAA is going to be on life support soon. What a terribly run organization.
Maybe there was a time when it was a genuine organization dedicated to the student athlete.
But, in the last 30 years or so, it’s become nothing but an operation designed to line the pockets of its members at the expense of the players.
Along with the IOC, it’s a corrupt and grotesque organization that should be eliminated.
I think this is an overreach right now. They will have to come up with something for compensation. What exactly that looks like, I have no idea, but they were rumored to have been close to announced pre COVID-19.
At the same time, does taking 6 guys out of college each year to the G-League really change that much? I don't think so. If it keeps expanding, then maybe, but not yet.
I think it's a good thing. If a kid is good enough to make a living out of HS playing basketball, he should have the chance to go to the G-League or the NBA. I don't see why the NCAA would care.
Some folks prefer college ball and some prefer NBA. I think folks that enjoy the college game will still enjoy the college game. Watching a player develop over a few years is fun IMO.
Let the one and done type players go get paid. No reason for them to pretend to attend classes.
I also think this may help clean up some recruiting issues. These guys are going to make it known earlier in the process that they are going to the G-League. With that said, money under the table will not entice them to play of KU or UK.
I agree 100%
Why should we continue this whole charade of making kids come for a year and pretend like they’re vested in the university as a student as well as an athlete?
The NCAA shouldn’t care about players who want to go to the NBA or the G league out of high school. That’s their decision and they should be allowed to follow it without any interference from the NCAA.
They should focus on getting the players who want to come and play 4 years. Sure that means you won’t be seeing many 5 stars suit up for schools, but those days were over a long time ago and the NBA has essentially forced those players to do a year unpaid internship in the NCAA.
I’d rather see a lower level of basketball, without the 5 star players, full of kids who are going to play 3-4 years as opposed to the way it’s been for the past 15 years with all the 1 and done players.
Why start at the end of high school? If an 11 year old can make a living playing basketball, by all means... let's make him a commodity. Use him up & spit him out.
April 17th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
So you’re saying there’s basically no difference between an 18 year and an 11 year old?
You really should study those human development books a little more.
The point is if this is where we are going, go all the way. Don't tell kids they have to actually go to classes & learn things like how to read & write if they would rather spend all day learning to dribble & shoot. What makes a high school education any more important than a college education, when it's all about money?
Let the NBA have them. They can take the top 15 kids every year and there is no way in hell that will alter the interest in college basketball one bit.
Yeah, no one in 2008 was thinking the NCAA tournament was lame because Brandon Jennings played overseas, and next year no one is going to notice that Isaiah Todd is playing elsewhere. Let them play in the G League and make some money if the G League will take them. College basketball will be fine. No one in Michigan is going to stop cheering for Michigan or MSU to watch the Grand Rapids Drive because popularity is driven by the team, not the individual player in the vast majority of cases
Zion brought the NCAA huge ratings in 2019. Stars matter for average sports fans. Diehards will watch anything though.
Zion was a big star, but if he never played college ball the EXACT same number of people would have watched the NCAA tournament last year. For all intents and purposes the tournament is college basketball, and it will always be a huge thing even if the top 20 or so guys who would have been freshmen don't play in it.
Respectfully, Zion is not a good example for this argument. Ive seen a lot of people throw his name out there but he’s a once in a decade or more talent. The vast majority of 5* guys in the last decade would have almost no bearing on the success of college basketball whether they played in it or in the G League / Europe
The NBA & the players union raised the minimum age to 19 to begin with so I don’t really get the middle finger part.
The G league is probably a good move for five star recruits, but only around twenty percent of four star recruits ever get drafted. Less than five percent of 3 stars.
A four year stint in the NCAA, if it ends with a degree and no NBA career, is a far better safety net than if you wash out of the G League in four years.
Also, the NCAAs are still going to produce stars. Guys like Draymond Green, Steph Curry, Ja Morant, Caris Levert, Victor Oladipo, none of those guys would have sniffed a G-League offer out of High School, and yet they've all carved out a variety of spots in the NBA, from superstar to starters to key role players.
Or someone like Obi Toppin, who wasn't recruited at all out of HS, and is about to be a top-5 pick.
College is more about the name on the chest than the name on the back. As long as kids representing the Michigan name are better than the other kids on the playing field, I'm fine. If they want to go straight to G-League, NBA or overseas, they should have the opportunity.
If the NCAA is going to drastically change things just to accommodate some 18-year olds that are planning to stick around 4-year institution for a year, that's trading one bad model for another.
This is just fine. Let the "one and dones" be "zero and bye felicias".
this is the best news, especially for michigan. get the top 8-10 (if not more) one and doners out of the ncaa. that will make it much more difficult for the KYs, Dukes and NCs. it easily levels the playing field.
You do realize that means the next group of people will get the offers from Duke and Kentucky right?
Yes but the talent gap between 1-10 and the rest is much greater than 11-20 and the rest.
^^^^this is obviously obvious. like KY would be nearly as good with 3 guys between 10-20 vs 3 of the top 10 guys each year.
I'm not normally a "Michigan should join the Ivy League for athletics" kind of guy... but should universities really be in the business of "courting and accommodating basketball's top stars"?
This was my favorite quote from the piece:
The NBA has thrown down the gauntlet, as Evans expects a half-dozen of the top high school players to end up in the G League developmental program this year.
Soooooo.....6 kids? Wow, I'm sure the foundation of College Basketball is shaking in its bones. Until the NBA creates a giant all-encompassing multiple tiered minor league system, i.e. like hockey and baseball, the NCAA will still be fine.
if you think it's going to stay at six players in 2021 and beyond, i don't know what i can tell you.
even if it does: taking six highly-ranked incoming players out of the class each year for any extended period of time will absolutely, without question, lower the level of play. it just will.
i'm totally fine with it, by the way, for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that the vast majority of guys that go this route didn't belong in college anyway.
By adding these kids to team rosters at $500k per season, G League franchises are making teenagers their top draw. They are overpaying them at a fraction of what they are paying the remainder of their roster and coaching staff. There isn't any certainty that these players if they went to college, would even start, immediately.
Because of their status, you are virtually forced to start and play them regardless of how they mesh and perform on your team. My feeling is most of them need 20 game or more seasoning and education before you get a strong reading what they can actually do and would likely offer with more game experience.
The NCAA and their member schools have never relied on players as their primary draw because players come and go. Institutions rely on long-term team success and coaching personalities for its fan loyalty, popularity and sponsorship. Coaches give personality and playing definition to their teams which are then filled with players who match their aims and championship potential, which is how their ability is parsed and rated.
The NBA is more a players league than one about team performance. Players are marketed as draws for their teams and individual matchups ahead of their teams. In college, its all about team success and performance.
I think this is great. It'll be interesting to see what this does for their stock - that's the most important part, right? Whenever I would see a kid go overseas, I always thought it diminished their stock a bit - you play against older guys and sometimes have very limited minutes.
Having a team specifically for teenagers to go to is great. At the same time, if they get worked by guys in the G-League, what's that do for their confidence and draft status? Time will tell, but I think it's a good move. Nobody should feel forced to go to college if they can capitalize and make money now. I think long term this makes both leagues better.
As I always like to remind without much sympathy, the NCAA is nothing more than protection from a group of sports regulators hired by college presidents to keep them from acting against their own sordid interests because they all see the sports world differently and how it interacts with paid education.
The NBA is basically just babysitting young players for scouting purposes who would otherwise benefit from maturing away from home in a community with other aged kids to learn how to deal with things on their own for a year before making all their worldly choices for themselves.
Having lots of money to make those choices without any structure other than going to practice and games seems like a Covid-19 stay-at-home sentence to me, not a liberating life-sustaining opportunity before entering the NBA draft, which offers no assurance other than a well-paid waiting period post high school graduation.
Even if you're not interested in four years of college before going pro, doesn't mean you're ready to become a pro player. It just means you want to skip the preparation and get paid for doing something you've enjoyed as a natural outlet and demonstrated great ability on your own. Funny, but when the NBA introduced this program a year ago with a $125k pay limit and no choice of G League team selection, it got no takers.
Not like playing in the G League is going to rock the brand growth of kids nobody has heard about except in their own social media sphere of influence. The NBA's minor league system is filled with wannabe pros who actually know what playing in bigtime college environments is like and what playing in America's secondary markets is all about. Attention and interest isn't the same.
If you're as good as Kevin Garnet, Kobe and LeBron out of high school and ESPN has heralded you as the game's next best player, then you're on your way. But even Dr. J played as a freshman at U Mass before he could play for the varsity team and then headline a new pro league, featuring the likes of other superstar young players given the chance to shine in smaller media markets.
The NBA has matured. Most of its grests played in college first. These days it's a players league, but if you want to be good at playing in it, you have to be more than a player. I think college still offers a better path to maturing into a pro future.
julius erving didn't play on the umass varsity as a freshman because freshman weren't eligible to play varsity between 1954 and 1973. it wasn't because he wasn't ready.
Who cares if top go pro, it is their right to do so. College basketball is not only about stars, it’s about teams. As long as competition is good who cares if the top 20 don’t play college ball.
were there any star freshmen on any of the final four teams last year? i can't think of any.
Minor league baseball exists. I don’t understand what the problem is.
I mean this politely, but.. so what?
People should not be dictated to as to what they should do with their lives, or how they should do it.
I personally am not that fond of LeBron James, but he was able to make it in the NBA and garner success, and did it without college. Good for him. If he can demonstrate the right basketball skills appropriate for professional playing, then why should he have to go to college, knowing that he can do what he needs to without enrolling in a university?
There are plenty of people who have been successful in life without needing to go to college to make it.
Some players need the college-level development, and if that's the case, so be it. But a player should not be punished for early success.
People say it's a "racket' that the NBA has; I could just as easily say that the NCAA is trying to develop its own "racket" by artificially forcing players into its pipeline. The NBA knows what it's looking for, and if a player wants to do that, so be it.
I don't know about any of you, but the core lessons I learned for being a responsible adult were not taught to me by a college (In fact, I'd say that some profs at UofM Flint seemed to actually work against good ethics--I'm not kidding). College was necessary for my profession, but the things I learned that stuck with me were in my internship, not my classrooms.