College Basketball Thread 2018

It's on the NBA to "make it like baseball." Not the NCAA. Take it up with the NBA.

 

I do have a problem with any salary cap, actually. If an owner can't hang financially, sell the fucking team. Let a player make whatever the market thinks he's worth.

But beyond that, you are overlooking the "solely for the benefit of others" part of my post. LeBron James has made $237 million so far in his career, and is set to make another $150M+ over the next four years in salary alone. Not to mention his endorsement deals and companies in which he has a financial interest, including Liverpool Football Club.

 

The NBA didn't come up with this system on its own. If you think it did, you're incredibly naive.

 

Not according to Adam Silver in 2014.

Silver: 2 years of college best for NBA players

He more or less made the same argument in 2017:

N.B.A. Commissioner Is Ready for Change in ‘One-and-Done’ Rule

“I think we all agree that we need to make a change,” Silver said. “As I’ve said before, our position, at least our formal position, going into bargaining was that we wanted to raise the minimum age from 19 to 20, and of course their formal position was they want to lower the age from 19 to 18.

“I think it’s one of those issues that we need to come together and study.”

There were six rookies this season who averaged 10 points per game or more; none were teenagers. One of the advantages that could come from raising the age minimum to 20 would be that players may be more ready for the pro game. Silver said he has talked to many veteran players, who have a sense that the 19-year-olds “are not coming in game-ready.”

My hunch is the NBA creates a developmental league that offers minimum contracts and loses money at the gate - because who wants to see a bunch of AAU players no one knows - to satiate the NBA player's union and college basketball who, I'm telling you, wants out the one and done game. There might be 3 coaches - K, Cal, and Self - who even remotely benefit from the one-and-done system, and K and Cal's teams ebb and flow from season to season.

 

The NBA has had a development league for quite some time.

 

The NBA absolutely benefits from college basketball. More than anyone. Who is Andrew Wiggins without the one year at KU? Just another wing that plays for some team somewhere.

 

He already is just another wing who plays for some team somewhere. He's getting paid like a superstar, but he plays like a backup. I'm not sure four years at Kansas would have helped him.

 

Nah. That's a feeder league. (Although a few draftees are immediately consigned there for development because they're nowhere near ready)

The G League has agreed to pay Select Contracts to any high schoolers they deem above the line, or something. But that's not a real developmental league. u-17, u-16, that kind of stuff...that's developmental.

I have no beef with the NBA going down into, shit, the middle schools. Let kids pick that path early and pay for their own college, if they ever want it.

 

And what is Adam Silver saying now?

 

Sports leagues are natural monopolies. There are substantial and costly barriers to entry. No professional league of any type has started and succeeded in 50 years in any of the four major sports.

And you never really ahve answered to question. What is the problem with the Kevin Ware's or some abckup linebacker who blows out a knee covering kicks getting more money at the expense of a multi-million dollar coach?

 

So, not a real development league, since college basketball already performs that function.

How do we uncouple big time money from big time college sports?

 

Andrew Wiggins went from sure No. 1 pick coming out of high school to debated No. 1 after a year of college. He was a phenom as a high schooler, best prospect since LeBron, Maple Jordan, etc.