I don't disagree with what Mo said, but I think he could have chosen his words better. I for one, if given the chance, would skip college to go pro. Even when I was in HS playing ball, I was worried about getting injured b/c then I might not get a scholarship (well trying to get one anyway). At the same time, why not practice against people on the pro level to help your game, like the kids overseas. You see people like Parker(even though I don't like him), who've been playing with pros and he's come in more ready than a good number of the college kids.
There is an obvious solution to all of this: Treat the NBA draft in a small sense like the Major League Baseball draft but with a twist: Say the rockets draft hs kid X or freshman college guy Y: one is ready to see big time minutes one isn't, the thing is you give the teams draft rights for 4/5 years, but during the summer months or if they are never going to get off the bench, the teams pay money for them to go to college. In fact, you could have it where teams maintain draft rights, but like in J Oneal's case he didnt play for 2 or 3 years in portland just let him go to college until he is ready to play in coaches eyes(club pays for the schooling part) and then like calling a minor league baseball guy up to the majors, the club could call O'neal or others up to the pro club. The NCAA's best hope is to become the minor leagues to the NBA as the major leagues.
When you graduated from high school, if you had been offered millions of dollars to do the job you were planning on doing after you got out of college (provided you could already do it reasonably well at that point), how many of you would have turned it down?
I want to be sure I understand...You're saying that if a HS kid declares himself for the draft; and then either doesn't get drafted or goes in the second round and doesn't make the team; that the kid can't regain his NCAA eligibility? That would seem to be grossly unfair.
Even if these "so-called" top 25 athletes go to college, let's not fool ourselves and think that they are students. They are there to train for the pros whether they make it or not. Classes are secondary for the elite athletes if they go at all. As an extreme example, Dexter Manley of Washington Redskins fame made it through college, I think Oklahoma State, without being able to read! I think that Taylor was saying that student athletes are not able to help their families while they are in college. I think that's what he meant by "At the max, it's four more years of struggling.''
. . . who would all drop out of college for a job paying a million dollars a year . . . . Rocket River
While I totally agree with the argument that no fool would pass up the money... I don't think the answer is having the NCAA pay athletes. Their "pay", if they actually take advantage of the fact that they are STUDENT-athletes, is getting that nice, free education which in the end will increase their earning potential given that they don't go on to the NBA. Okay, so that "free" education isn't free. That's true. The NCAA is a business. That's the crappy part. There's no way that will ever be remedied, though. They'll take advantage of college athletes no matter what. I like the baseball-like draft idea, though.
I think the issue is not whether the top HS players should go pro. The reasons have been pointed out earlier: (1) guaranteed money vs. risk of injury; and I think more importantly (2) vast majority of these kids aren't getting any "education" in school anyway. The issue is the lure of perceived "good path" to wealth to kids by aspiring to be pro players to the detriment of their education. How many of the kids spending their study time on playground courts dreaming to be "like Mike" will end up making any money from the sport? The solution, IMHO, is to have a farm system to get promising young players in to the pro program fairly early on and PAY THEM. The rest of the kids can just forget about the NBA dream and concentrate on their real education. And pro sports should spend some of their money on helping poor kids who have little hope of playing pro ball to excel in academics.
What are you talking about? In the quote he said the top 20-25 high school players think like this. You think he's wrong? If you're just graduating high school, and you've been living off government cheese for 17 years, what sounds more appealing to you: guaranteed BIG money to at least sit on the bench of an NBA team or a free ride at a university where you have to show up to class, study, work, practice, etc. If the reason a top 20-25 high school basketball player attends college is to make it in the NBA and he has the opportunity to become an NBA player, then why the hell would he go to college? Playing in the NBA will net more $$ than a real world job like the one I have, that's for sure. And going to the NBA is a more immediate payoff than going to college, so if the opportunity presents its self, I'm sure anyone and everyone would jump on it.
