"Now you can have a kid come to school for a year and play basketball and he doesn't even have to go to class," the coaching legend said. "He certainly doesn't have to go to class the second semester...he would not have to attend a single class the second semester to play through the whole second semester of basketball.”
Which begs the question: If academics don't matter, why doesn’t the NBA just take the kids straight out of high school? Exactly who's benefiting from the one-year rule?
Granted, NBA Commissioner David Stern has been trying to change the league's image. However, the one-year rule hasn't exactly eliminated the riffraff—not least of all because it's usually older players who find themselves in sticky situations.
The NFL, for its part, won't allow a player to enter the draft until he's two years removed from high school. That rule has a physical basis, but it also requires athletes to maintain that 2.0 GPA—which in turn means college football players have to take school at least a little seriously to be sure they can play during their sophomore seasons.
If Stern really wants to change the NBA's image, he'd do well to follow the NFL's lead and cultivate better-educated players.
And let's not forget about the interests of the athletes themselves.
In 2006, the NCAA had a total of 16,571 men’s basketball players. Only 44 of those young men were drafted into the NBA.
As for the rest—according to the NCAA, only 37 percent of African-American basketball players graduate.
Where do they go from college basketball?
As it stands, the NCAA and the NBA may well be hindering the growth of young players, and creating conditions ripe for the development of the “Spoiled Athlete.”
The solution, for the players and the league, is an obvious one: Make these athletes go to class—and don’t make it so easy for them to enter the draft.
Tougher rules will help these young men prepare themselves for the demanding rigors of adult life, in the NBA and elsewhere. College is where you hone your skills and sharpen your discipline, whether your goal is to be an NBA star, a doctor, or an investment analyst.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of Oden and Durant. Though they went one-two in the draft, critics have their doubts about their ability to hang with the big boys.
When the season starts in October, these two phenoms will have finally made good on their childhood dreams—and will finally get a chance to face the fiercest basketball competition in the world.
No longer will they be the oversized kids on the court. In the NBA, they'll have to prove just how good they really are.
And so it is that I say this to Greg and Kevin:
“Good luck fellas. Oh—and about those shoes. I wear a 7 1/2.”
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