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- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
The problem with this stance is that American football and basketball are the only sports in the world where there is any expectation of going to college to begin with. With every other sport except football and basketball - including in America - and in every other country in the world - including basketball as well as soccer, cricket and/or rugby which are the equivalent to football in other countries - no one goes to college except those who aren't considered to be good enough to compete on the professional or Olympic level as teenagers.
So maturity isn't considered for the MLB and NHL athletes who enter the minor leagues immediately after high school in the U.S. or the basketball athletes who enter their equivalent of the NBA immediately after high school in the foreign countries, as to the top soccer and cricket athletes. And those are team sports who generally won't sign athletes until they are 16.
Also female athletes in individual sports have gone pro as young as 12, and the same is true of Olympic athletes who while technically amateur can still make many millions in endorsements.
Finally, not sports related but you can enter the military as young as 17 a
lso. Maybe you don't become a millionaire, but you do get all of the life-or-death responsibility that the military entails. So truthfully, especially with respect to the direct comparison between football and basketball on one hand and baseball on the other, it is mostly a matter of tradition as well as the entertainment value that these college sports provide and the other benefits that they provide to the schools. Absent that, there is no argument against Zion Williamson going pro that shouldn't have also applied to Michelle Wie, who received $10 million in endorsements upon becoming a pro golfer at 15.Great, just what college basketball needs! Ugh!!!
The only thing that I object to is the implication that people in other countries only go to college if they are not good enough to play professional sports. In the UK very few go to university and zero get a sports scholarship to go to a major university. The students are subject to much higher academic standards than in the US and sports are treated at those establishments as a pastime for recreational purposes only. Students are not held to a different standard because of their sporting ability.
A good response but I can quibble or better over most. For example, a 12 yo female (or male) pro athlete will have a parent or guardian with her. Olympic athletes are not going away 2-4 days each week for months on end. And FB and BB salaries are in another category than futball or cricket.
The other aspect is that unlike yesteryear, to succeed, you need education. It will only be more significant. Cannot count on getting a job at the local foundry or production line. If someone is drafted, there is no assurance they make a career of it. If they don't, then what then?
Question: Why is this important to pro BB ? If they wait to get a player in 2 years, they'll still get the guy, right?
Hmmm ... you might want to read about the experiences of teen and preteen pro and Olympic athletes and reconsider your response. I agree about the importance of education - and vocational training - but again there is NHL and especially MLB.
As far as this being important to pro BB you got it backwards. The NBA would LOVE to restrict their ranks to guys who have played 4 years of college ball. Starring at the college ranks makes it that much easier to promote them when they enter the NBA. Michael Jordan wouldn't have become the global phenomenon that he was without first winning a national title at North Carolina, and David Stern is still crying in his, er, wine coolers over Grant Hill never living up to the hype after coming into the NBA from Duke or Danny Manning not doing it either after leading Kansas to a title. It is one of the reasons why the NBA no longer competes head to head with the NFL like it did in the 1990s and is now more akin to the NHL where it is only popular among some demographics and areas of the country.
But the issue is the NBAPA, the union. Where the NFLPA has colluded, er, partnered with the NFL owners to limit entry into their league to people 3 years removed from their high school class graduation, the NBAPA has really never had this position. If the owners were to ever try to impose it, the NBAPA would have taken them to the National Labor Relations Board and won easily. Before you blast the NBAPA and unions in general, remember that the NBAPA's position is the same as the NHLPA and MLBPA has always had. Were the NHL or MLB to try to impose a 3 year rule they would go nuts, and remember those sports have the minor leagues that the NBA and the NFL doesn't.
No reason the NBA shouldnt be able to draft a kid, try to sign him, and the kid then still retain amatuer status. Exactly as in baseball.