Re: Kids in the NBA

["Meninno, James A." <JMENINNO@PARTNERS.ORG>]

This is a joke, right?  The NBA is taking away kids' right to an
education?  How about all the athletes of all sports who go to college
who never would have otherwise?  Not that they're getting any education
there.

If you ask me, the whole college athletic system is a corrupt mess.  To
call these kids amateurs is a joke when they are being given an
education that others will pay six figures for, solely because of their
ability to play a sport.  If you think about it, the whole practice of
schools recruiting athletes to generate revenue for them, while ignoring
the academic admission standards they apply to the rest of their
students, is hypocritical and amounts to exploitation of the athlete.
How long would these programs last if they were not profitable?  Witness
BU football.  These schools are getting four years work out of their
players for room and board.  I think it is poetic justice that the
players are now skipping over the schools, or leaving them after 1 or 2
years.  

What is required is some sort of minor leagues where players who have no
interest in education can go and start earning money while developing
their skills.  If CBA teams were allied to NBA teams, like in minor
league baseball, perhaps this could work.  Some of the Billions in
revenue generated by the top leagues should be filtered down and players
who can't quite make it could still make a living.  Teams would not have
to draft 18 year old kids into the NBA, they could mature at a lower
level first.

If a player wants a degree and can meet the admission requirements,
college ball will still be there for him.  It just won't be at the same
level.  I used to think this idea could never happen because there was
too much money to be lost at the college level.  Now, with the best
players not bothering with four years of college, if they go at all, I
think it is inevitable.

Jim