Looking for blame in NBA Draft mess? Look in the mirror, Mr. Stern May 14, 2001 By Dan Wetzel SportsLine.com Senior Writer Maybe it's those XFL-caliber ratings his league has been posting on TNT. Maybe it's the fact the NBA might actually be moving to Memphis (what, Dothan, Ala., wasn't available?). Maybe it's the fact that four of the first five picks in June's draft could be high school players, but David Stern actually thinks his league's annual draft has become a problem. David Stern's hatred of agents is risking his league's success -- and not diminishing the power of agents.(AP) "It's not a good thing. It's bad for basketball," the NBA commissioner told Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post on Friday. You think? Talk about a visionary always ahead of the curve. With his league's popularity plummeting, ratings in the basement and the quality of play down, Stern is finally proposing a solution to the annual Oklahoma land rush the NBA Draft has turned into. Which is funny, because it was Stern's last solution that caused this mess in the first place. Make no mistake about it, the reason 36 underclassmen and six high school players applied for June's draft has nothing to do with a devaluing of education, a proliferation of street agents or delusions of teen-age grandeur. It has to do with Stern not trusting anyone or anything but his own brilliance back in 1995. Thus he designed the rookie salary structure for two reasons: Prevent owners from offering top picks $84 million contracts as Milwaukee did with Glenn Robinson. His system regulated the financial terms and length of the contract for each first-round pick. Stick it to hated agents by making their services largely unnecessary in rookie contract negotiations. Stern thought it was genius. It turned out to be the genesis of the problem. The move encouraged kids to get into the league as soon as possible and get the clock ticking so they could make the big, big money on contract No. 2 (where they would need agents more than ever). Suddenly there was little to no financial incentive to stay in college. Moving up five slots in the draft would mean a few hundred grand per year at most. Losing a year of earning potential could mean $10 million way down the road. Anyone who didn't see this coming was asleep at the rim. Now Stern is trying to seize back control, but he should be no more trusted than the people who thought deregulation would help California's energy crisis. Forget it, Stern is delusional here. He told Wilbon he's interested in reform but can't get anyone else to see his clairvoyance. "I can't seem to get the NCAA or (players association leader) Billy Hunter to see that we've got a serious problem," he said. Please. Hunter has been receptive in the past to reopening the Collective Bargaining Agreement as long as Stern gives something to get something. The NCAA has been begging Stern to wake up for five years. How he could even utter such a false statement is telling. So are his solutions; an age minimum, a developmental league and placing all the blame on everyone else. It's classic Stern. This is a commissioner who has never trusted the game of basketball to sell itself. He instead was always about promotion. In terms of long-term planning there never was any, just take today's dollar no matter how damaging it will be in the long run. He overexpanded the league, diluted the talent and then tried to P.T. Barnum the American public into believing the games were still fantastic. His new proposal keeps the control inside the league and that's where he wants it. That's also what got him in this quandary. The problem with the draft is that for the past six years it has been like a never-ending, no-restrictions hunting season. It's like unregulated commercial fishing. The herd has been thinned, the great banks fished out. There isn't anything left in the talent pool but raw talent. Stern never thought about tomorrow and now that it's here, all he can do is complain. "Kids are being lured," Stern said, trying to blame faceless "street agents" even though he is the Fifth Avenue variety. "As I see these various announcements, I wonder what's going on behind the barn to make these kids do what they're doing. I believe these kids are being encouraged, induced, propelled. "It's a big mess. ... Kids are now bouncing the ball in the schoolyard thinking, 'I'll get to be 17 and [the NBA] is where I'll be.' School is an irrelevancy. It's bad for kids, bad for the college game, bad for the business of basketball." Stern is right about all of that, kids are being encouraged, induced, propelled. By David Stern. People aren't stupid, if they see underdeveloped players becoming sudden millionaires, they realize they can be, too. When they see NCAA champions being bypassed, they realize what not to strive for. Want to start solving this problem? Easy, Mr. Commissioner, stop trying to control the process and go back to trusting your owners. Eliminate the rookie salary structure and let anyone sign anybody to whatever amount they can fit in under their cap. Let's say the No. 1 pick is going to cost a team $84 million instead of $9 million. You think Tyson Chandler, an agile high school 7-footer who has never shown a proven offensive, defensive or rebounding game nor the acumen for hard work is going to be picked No. 1? Or No. 3? How about Sagana Diop, another high schooler who has played only two years of organized ball. The GM who does that is risking his franchise on a long-term project at best, a bust at worst. You'll see Shane Battier move up in a hurry. No longer will potential mean everything. Suddenly experience and proven ability will. You will have to show before you go. Battier is going to have a long, healthy career in the league. We know that because he is a known commodity. Anyone willing to risk everything on the unknown won't be in business very long. The freaks of nature like Garnett and McGrady will still go high. And teams and players will be able to gamble. It is un-American to stop people from making free decisions, no matter how stupid. But the word that will swiftly sink back down the ranks will be, that until you've proven yourself, wait your turn. Spending that time in college, hopefully learning the game and maturing, will again have value. College basketball is not a panacea, but it has been a beneficial step in the development of thousands of careers. Not leaving until you have maximized the college games -- whether that's five years for Larry Bird or none for Garnett -- is what should be encouraged. Leaving too soon and curbing individual development at such a critical juncture is bad for the player and the NBA. And that's what even Stern has realized. There is a generation of gifted players not developing in the current system because there is no outside motivation to do so. Make skipping steps a gamble for the player and the franchise willing to overlook it and not so many players will be encouraged to make the leap. And then maybe the draft pool will slowly restock itself. Six years ago, Stern thought he should try to save dumb owners from themselves while trying to stick it to the agents he despises. That little plan was such a disaster that even he is beginning to admit it. Even if he isn't ready to concede whose fault it is http://cbs.sportsline.com/b/page/pressbox/0,1328,3898270,00.html ------------------- What do you guys think about eliminating the rookie salary scale? ------------------
I think its an idea based on the premise that something is wrong with the NBA. I tihnk the NBA is fine, and the talent level has never been higher and the games are incredibly entertaining. I think this another case of Chicken Little crying that the "Sky is falling!". ------------------ Charles Barkely on the Raptors defeating the Knicks in Round 1 :"I think it was the Lord. The Lord was with the Raptors. You know the Knicks like to talk so much about religion, but I think the Lord was a Raptor fan."
Eliminating the salary cap just takes us back to the old problem of top-5 picks holding bad teams hostage and demanding Glenn Robinson- and Donyell Marshall-size contracts. But if you look at the cause of the more recent problem, the solution is fairly clear... OK, so let's remove the incentive of "starting the clock" by making the length of the rookie contract depend on how much college experience a player has. For example, if you played 4 years in college, you become a free agent after only 3 seasons. If you're drafted after your sophomore or junior year, your rookie contract lasts 4 seasons; after your freshman year, 5 seasons; and if you skip college entirely, 6 seasons. Both the league and the players' union ARE aware of this possible solution, but they haven't been able to agree on the numbers.
Everything goes through it's highs and lows. The NBA should not be tampered with in any way. It's ratings will go up in time, they just have to let it happen. They are in the bottom end of a continuous cycle, and I am certain that they will once again reach a high level. Enough of these new rules, salaries, and draft processes. Just let the game go through it's cycle. ------------------ The Protrolls.com message boards! Protrolls.com! Don't visit my site.
