Check out this article from ESPN.com; there's also a Chronicle article on the same subject http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/1107/1457604.html http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1653171 This blurb towards the end of the ESPN piece caught my attention: *** Taylor said NCAA policies are causing high school players to look past getting a college education. "If you look at anybody that can play nowadays, coming out of the top 20 to 25 (high school players), they look at college as a pit stop,'' Taylor said. "Even if they look at college, the first thing you hear is: `I've got to make a better situation for my family.' "Going to college is not making that happen. At the max, it's four more years of struggling.'' *** Is Taylor joking??? Going to college is not going to provide a better situation for your family??? I think Mo has lost some touch with reality here
mo taylor was probly high when he stated this qoute. (that weed is a motherlover) yeah mo taylor gained a couple of pounds and loss a couple brain cells, oh well. hell but we need him to at least do something on the court. kenny thomas is rusty as hell. and eddie griffin's inside game is too inconsistent. mo taylor at least do something instead of averaging 2 rebounds per game.
i dunno. i kinda sympathise with the guy. most of these players don't come from well-to-do upper-middle class families like most of the people on this BBS... the multi-million dollar rookie contracts HS-ballers are getting nowadays probably far exceed the money their entire family makes in a lifetime. if i were a HS baller with recognised potential, i'd say to hell with college too. That's one extra year in which a career-ending injury can destroy not only my prospects but also the prospects for my entire extended family! many people say that college is a nice training/proving ground for players with potential. i say i'd much rather train and prove myself in practice with NBA players with the millions already in the bank... college ball are for those players who haven't got the goods to make it straight to the NBA (kinda like the NBDL in that sense). i'm sorry, but that's the truth. you can save college education for after your NBA career.
Actually, Ive always had the impression that a great number of posters on here are struggling college kids.
Damn Lil! Stealing my thunder. I hate to say it though. If I was faced with guaranteed first rd money or a college scholarship, I'd take the first rd money. If I sucked, oh well...I can pay for college later. Disclaimer: This is only if I needed the money.
What is your goal when you go to college? 1. To become more educated Or 2. To get the type of education that allows you to get the job of your dreams and make a lot of money? I bet 99% of the people would choose number 2. Knowledge is great but its worthless if you can not parley it into a good career and a decent living. So what is the goal of a Eddie Curry, Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudamire or any other basketball player with that kind of talent coming out of High School? To make money of course. It does not take a math major to figure out that if you become a 1st round selection in the NBA draft that you are set for life. So what if you don't make it, you still have 3 years of a guaranteed multi million dollar contract. College can wait for that kind of money. What if Lebron James decided to go to college and blew out his knee and then never lived up to the Pre College hype. Good bye college scholarship, good bye 1st round draft status, good bye multi million dollar career in the NBA. No way Mo Taylor was high when he made that quote. He knew exactly what he was talking about. NCAA rules are unfair and punish college basketball kids in a way that other kids in school are not penalized. A fortune 500 company can pay for a kid to go to school at MIT and even give him a good stipend and guarantee his employment when he gets out of college. But let a coach or a booster take a college basketball player out to lunch or help put a little food on that player’s families table and we have a major federal investigation. But of course it’s OK for the colleges to make millions of these players. If Kwame Brown had chosen 4 years of college instead of the NBA then he would certainly never recoup the money lost by not playing in the NBA for 4 years. A lot can happen in four years. A brother or sister may not be able to go to college because they don't have the same type skills or money. Your parents could loose their house. Anything could happen. 4 years in college is four more years your family may have to wait to get out of poverty.
Pros and cons either way you take. There's really no point to debate it. I think it has more to do with the individual. Kobe was a guy who definitely didn't suffer financially but decided to go straight to the NBA. Rashard was not a good HS student. I heard he had lower than 2.0 GPA. Doesn't mean he's not smart, just not academically inclined. He probably would have struggled too much in college. Either way, it turned out to be the right decisions for them thus far. At the same time, for every right decision, there are wrong ones made as well. Some guys gamble their eligibility for college and college ball to get into the draft. We just don't always hear about those heatbreaks.
Great post Crash. I agree with you 100%. I also agree with Mo Taylor's statements and respect him for admitting that he took money and taking responsibility for his actions. The same cannot be said for Chris Webber.
I think that it's fairly obvious that going to the NBA versus college is going to have an immediate impact on you and your family. Let's see - earning the league minimum $250,000, or making nothing and in fact having to spend money. Gee, tough choice huh? It's time that college athletes get paid by the NCAA.
The NCAA uses their student - athletes (sic) and the athletes deserve more, and better consideration than they receive. I have no sympathy for UM or MoT but I do not condemn them either. I should, I really should, but I cannot.
I will concede the following points on the discussion: - one should never fault a H.S. senior who turns down college because he is guaranteed a million-dollar contract if he declares for the NBA draft. I think there's much hypocrisy when someone says with conviction that they will turn down a million dollars on a platter for a chance to go to college... - the NCAA unquestionably takes advantage of the student athletes performing in the major sports. That being said, funds being generated from the major revenue sports (men's basketball and football) are used to fund events, championships and opportunities for competition in a host of other less-glamourous, non-revenue sports for men and women. The benefits do not merely flow from the athlete to the student. And if one were to taken up discussion of the necessity and adequecy of NCAA stipends to athletes, one raises an entirely new debate on methods of implementation, means of control, inherent inequities (e.g. should a basketball player at Duke or Arizona or Kentucky be paid the same amount as a player at a College of Charleston, or North Illinois, etc.). That's entirely beyond the scope of this discussion however, conceding this point does not Taylor's comment any less preposterous... the 1st part of his quote perpetuates the myth that the top 25-30 players coming out of high school should treat college as a mere pit stop... I think just a bit of research will reveal that most of the so called top-25 players coming out of high school do not make it in the NBA; yet, nearly all of the players in the top-25 are lured by and believe in the myth perpetuated by Taylor that college is a mere training ground for the NBA... In doing so, they squander a chance at a free education... For every Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady, there are dozens of guys like Taj McDavid, or Korleone Young, or Leon Smith, and so on and so forth... the 2nd part of his quote is a plainly outrageous insult to all the students who work multiple part-time jobs and carry ungodly amount of student loans just so they can obtain a degree and a better future for themselves and their families... It's certainly reasonable that Taylor makes these comments, having been a top high school recruit who played at a big-time program and later made it to the NBA... Yet, he should not use his sheltered path to the NBA to convey a false message to others who will turn out to be less fortunate than him...
The same could be said about College fottball. Those kids bust their asses, break their bodies, and make the school millions of dollars. What do they get? A scholarship that might include room and board. If they get injured.... "tough break kid."
Personally I feel that if an NBA team wants to draft a player and send him to college to learn how to play ball before he actually joins the team then the NCAA should not prevent this. If Nike wants to give a college player a nice endorcement contract then they should be allowed to. What a slap in the face it most be for the NCAA to not only make tons of money off of its players but then to turn around and tell them that they can not even make a profit thru endorcements! If the NBA was allowed to draft a player right out of high school and give him a non-active contract that would cover his tuition and provide a nice salery while that player learns his skill at college then we would not see 18 and 19 year old kids in the NBA.
I don't think you get it. Why did Kwame Brown go to the NBA instead of Florida? First of all those 1-4 years are that much longer when you could be making money. Many of the player's families are in bad situations, and the quicker they make money, the sooner they'll be better off. It's sad to say, but most of the players who even go to college and don't make it to the L major in Communications, Sociology, Letter & Sciences, or whatever BS degree. They're mostly going to be an athlete not a student. You know economics...it's opportunity cost. Why waste time not getting paid with you family in the ghetto or whatever, when you can get paid in the NBA. It's hurting the college game, and as Chuch always says, it's unfair to make the fans wait for a player to develop, but that's how it is. It's the NBA's fault though. If they had a rule like the NFL, this wouldn't be happening, but even that might end up going down as more and more Clarett's start trying to challenge that stuff.
Great post deuce, something needs to be done about the sitation. Im not sure what it is that needs to be done but never the less...
