Ex-Duke Player Wendell Carter's Mom Compares NCAA to Slavery in Speech

The mother of former Duke Blue Devils forward Wendell Carter compared being a top-level NCAA student-athlete to the days of slavery during a speech. 

According to ESPN's Heather Dinich, Kylia Carter was speaking Monday in front of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics when she made the parallel:

"When you remove all the bling and the bells and the sneakers and all that, you've paid for a child to come to your school to do what you wanted them to do for you, for free, and you made a lot of money when he did that, and you've got all these rules in place that say he cannot share in any of that. The only other time when labor does not get paid but yet someone else gets profits and the labor is black and the profit is white, is in slavery."

Carter went on to call the dynamic between the NCAA and student-athletes "nauseating."

Dinich noted Kylia Carter not only got to experience the NCAA machine through her son's recruitment and subsequent college career but also had firsthand experience through her time as a basketball player at Ole Miss.

Carter's comments come at a time when the NCAA is facing intense scrutiny about whether student-athletes are fairly compensated for the value they bring to their schools.

The NCAA created a commission headed by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to recommend potential changes to the NCAA's structure following an FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball. 

Ultimately, many wondered whether the recommendations from the Commission on College Basketball—most notably ending the one-and-done rule—actually addressed the issues at hand.

According to Dinich, Carter called for the complete removal of the NCAA, saying she doesn't trust the organization.

Wendell Carter spent one season at Duke before declaring for the 2018 NBA draft. Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman ranked Carter ninth in his most recent big board.