Nba_One_and_Done_Rule

Austin Fritz English 102 Soren Palmer 4/21/10 NBA One and Done Rule The foundation of our country has always been based on the ideology of freedom. Many people consider America to be the land of opportunity and one of the few countries where one can go from “rags to riches.” For many young American athletes, basketball is their opportunity to make a living. Many of the best players in the National Basketball Association, like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, were able to pursue their dream of playing professional basketball when they were drafted right out of high school. However, in 2006, the NBA took that dream away from many high school basketball players when they adopted rule where players had to be at least 19 years of age and one year removed from high school to be eligible for the NBA draft. Not only is this new policy extremely unfair to the players, but it also has had negative effects on many of the universities that these players that attend. The NBA’s new rule is an infringement on their freedom of choice and denies these young players the opportunity to make a living. The NBA’s one and done rule limits the options of the high school basketball recruits and prevents them from making their own decisions for the future. These young athletes are being denied the right to accept a job and make money. After all, the NBA is nothing more than a job. They are mature enough to risk their lives fighting for their country in the military, but not mature enough to play professional basketball for their country. It makes no sense. Instead, the high school recruits have no choice, but to attend one year of college almost against his will. The whole purpose of college is to put the high school student in the position to get a good job, preferably the job of their dreams. The NBA has to be the only job in the world where high school recruits are encouraged to be college dropouts. Now that these players are essentially being forced to attend college, they go to school with the wrong attitude and the mindset that they will go for only one year. This kind of attitude is making a mockery of the student-athlete. The student is always supposed to come before the athlete. Many of these high school recruits are basically already in the NBA; they just need to attend college first for a year to make it official. These student-athletes actions resulted in the nickname the “one and done rule’ and the “one and done players.” As a result of this ‘one and done’ rule, several scandals have occurred involving these athletes. For example, USC’s basketball program has been under investigation because of one and done player O.J. Mayo. USC never even thought of recruiting him, but surprisingly Mayo wanted USC because the college met his marketing needs. It came as no surprise when Mayo was investigated for accepting thousands of dollars, cars, and other benefits from agents during his one year at USC. He never wanted to go to college in the first place. Connecticut and Memphis are under similar situations and face serious penalties from the NCAA. Not only do some of these one and done players accept money and gifts from agents, but they also don’t take school seriously. “Ohio State was hit with an academic setback that led to a reduction of scholarships after "one-and-done" players Greg Oden in 2007 and Kosta Koufos (in 2008) departed for the NBA and failed to complete third-quarter course work” (Wolverton). When Bob Knight was still coaching at Texas Tech University, he expressed his opinion regarding the lack of academic concern. “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. That, I think, has a tremendous effect on the integrity of college sports” (Wolverton). College should be the place where these young players can get a higher education, not a stepping-stone to the NBA. It is hard though to place the real blame on these young high school recruits for their actions because they did not want to go to college in the first place. The only other option for them instead of attending a college for a year is to spend it playing professional basketball in Europe before joining the NBA. “The European route is not practical and few 18-year-old kids could make the adjustment to being a professional in a foreign country” (Steve). Only one notable player has chosen this route, Brandon Jennings, a high school recruit from Oak Hill Academy who was originally committed to Arizona to play college basketball opted to play professional basketball in Italy for a year. It was a risky move for Jennings since he was in a foreign country where the majority of the people don’t speak English. Although Jennings struggled on the court in Italy, he was still able to earn $1.65 million playing ball and another two million dollars from Under Armor. The point is that Brandon Jennings was able to pursue his basketball career and earn substantial money during his one year absence. That year was more productive for him than it would have been playing basketball and attending classes at a college where he really didn’t want to be. Jennings will never know if he could have accomplished more playing ball in the comfort of his own environment since the NBA’s “one and done rule” prevented him from making that choice. Why did the NBA feel the need to implement such a controversial policy' The NBA created the “one and done rule” in response to a ten year period where many of the top high school recruits were passing up the opportunity to attend college in favor of joining the NBA draft. Many of these players had rough transitions from high school to the NBA and possibly would have benefited from a few years in college to further develop their game. NBA teams do not have the time to wait four or five years for some of these high school recruits to develop. As a result, many of these players have bounced around from team to team, been sent down to the NBA D-League, or cut from their teams and now play overseas. The NBA implemented the “one and done rule” to try to protect high school players who are not ready for the challenges of the NBA. However, most of these players who had bad transitions to the NBA were late draft picks, undrafted, or joined the NBA via free agency. Rarely has a high school player been drafted in the top fifteen and resulted in a failure. In fact, the two players that most people consider are the best out right now, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant, came straight out of high school and never had a bad season in the time each of them have played. It is apparent that the one and done policy was an astute business decision on the part of the NBA. The ruling has allowed some of the young high school recruits to mature as basketball players while giving the general managers and scouts another year to evaluate the talent level. However, not all of the coaches and potential NBA prospects agree with this policy. Memphis point guard Tyreke Evans will admit that he grew as a player under the direction of Coach John Calipari, but strongly opposes the age minimum. “If you’re ready, you’re ready. They are putting these rules in and people have to go through with it, but I disagree with it” (Lee). Evans argues that it is the player’s decision on whether or not he is ready to go to the NBA, not the league’s decision. Orlando Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy also strongly disagrees with the NBA one and done ruling. “I don’t really understand how we get away with that as a league, that we tell a guy out of high school he can’t come and play in our league. The guy should have the right to make a living and to come into our league. To me, kids should be going to college if at least part of what they want to do is get an education. To me, it’s a sham” (Lee). Even a coach in the NBA seems to agree that rule is directly violating the athlete’s freedom. There is no debate that players entering the NBA directly out of high school have greatly impacted the league. Superstars Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Garnett have won significant awards and they are recognized for what they have been able to achieve on their respective basketball teams. Dwight Howard, another high school player who went directly to the NBA, managed to lead the Orlando Magic to its second Finals appearance and the only Finals victory in the history of the franchise. In fact, six of the ten starters in the 2009 Finals never played basketball on a college team. The NBA may actually believe that they protect these young high school recruits, but the league is going about it the wrong way. “If the league really wants to help, stop preventing players from earning a paycheck. Instead, it should do a better job monitoring the agents it licenses to represent players and be more aggressive in the role of helping police youth basketball” (Paola). The majority of the NBA is made up of inner city African Americans. These kids were brought up with no money and want to make the millions of dollars the NBA has to offer as quickly as possible. “The argument that, without college, players are ill prepared for NBA life, doesn’t wash. When the Phoenix Suns drafted Orlando prep standout Amare Stoudemire in 2002, they took a proactive approach to help his transition. Few have had a tougher upbringing, but the rookie handled the sequel smoothly thanks to a cocoon the organization built around him” (Paola). It goes to show that these NBA teams can be beneficial to players that come directly from high school and especially for those who come from lower class and/or poverty. The NBA is gradually becoming a younger league with each incoming year. This new generation of basketball players is outstanding and the old popular standouts are slowly approaching the age for retirement. The last two Rookie of the Year winners were one and done players. The last two and three of the last six MVPs were players who went straight from high school to the NBA. Instead of forcing these players to go to college, play overseas, or do nothing for a year, the NBA should adopt a policy similar to that of the MLB. The MLB rule allows players to be drafted out of high school but forces those who go to college to stay for three years. This way definitely seems more logical. Players can follow their dreams of playing professional basketball, but at the same time they learn loyalty and respect by honoring their commitment to the university if they make that choice to attend college. This is a winning situation for all of the parties involved. The NBA wins. The universities win. But most of all, the players win. WORKS CITED Lee, Michael. “Debate Flares Over ‘One-and-Done’ Rule”. The Washington Post. (2009). Web. 20 April. 2010 Paola, Boivin. "One and done baloney, with a little Mayo." USA Today. Web. 20 April. 2010. Steve, Wieberg, and Halley Jim. "Jennings' backdoor route toward NBA debated." USA Today. Web. 20 April. 2010. Wolverton, Brad. "College-Basketball Experts Divided Over NBA Age Minimum." Chronicle of Higher Education 53.32 (2007): A40-A41. Web. 20 April. 2010.