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These athletes are also getting younger… much younger. This causes much debate on how young is too young to be the best? Is it possible to be too young? Is it unconstitutional to hold them back, from their highest potential? Are we ruining a child’s life, by holding them back with, of all things, school? This is the topic at hand today, and a very controversial one at that. By the time we reach the end of this paper, the truth will be known that, the fact that knowledge and education last longer than any amount of many and athletic ability, clearly shows that it is a very wise decision to stay in school, before pursuing their professional dreams. Let us first discuss where most of a child’s peaking potential begins. High school athletics is known to be some of the most competitive and demanding set of athletics in the world. Not only is the person to handle any and all schoolwork they are assigned, but also their dedication to their sport(s), social life, work, and family. This is a lot of pressure on a kid 14-18 years old. High school sports are supposed to be secondary to academics, and this is true in most cases. What happens if your school relies on its football program to bring in its revenue? Is that a case for debate? There has been an ongoing debate about weather or not athletes are treated more fairly than regular students. That is a whole other topic that can be talked about. When you look at the three major sports, football, basketball and baseball, these events alone bring in more money in an average game, than ten students pay in book fees. High schools rely on sports as an attention grabber, and a source of income. Any school corporation that does not have sports, as it’s second priority is a failing school corporation. The teachercoaches play a very important role in these student’s lives. They are the ones who spend the extra two to three hours outside of the classroom with the athlete. Paying these people more is definitely worth the money. Most high school athletes are looking for one thing, stardom. They want to shine as bright as they can, as much as they can. Sometimes it makes one wonder if these students just slip by in high school academics, and do anything and everything they can to be the next Kevin Garnett or J.D. Drew, or Ty Tryon. An excerpt from article “Go Pro, Young Man” in The Daily Illini, reads; “Hi, I’m 6-foot-9, I have a 40-inch vertical, long arms and I’m a rebounding machine. In short, I got game. I love basketball too. I have been blessed. Scouts love me. I am a certain lottery pick in the NBA draft. I can’t pass up this opportunity, and so I will go ahead and declare myself ready to be entered into the NBA draft. By the way- did I mention that I am only 18 years old? It’s true- in about a month I will be going to the prom. I am excited about that. But it’s been real weird lately. Ever since I made this decision to play pro basketball next year, people have been saying a lot of nasty stuff. They say that I am making a big mistake, that I am ruining the game I love on both the professional and the high school level. Luckily it’s not all been directed just at me. They are saying the same things about other high school players, like Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. Even some college players have been feeling the heat, including Zach Randolph, Gilbert Arenas, Steven Hunter, Jason Richardson, Bobby Simmons and Michael Wright. I am getting pretty tired of hearing all this. I have been trying to just pop my collar- but it’s not always that easy. I’ll admit, partly why I am going pro is out of less-than-ideal intentions. Truth is, I kind of like sticking it to the colleges. That’s because a lot of people make a lot of money off kids playing basketball, but the kids themselves do not see any of it. My jersey could sell for $45 a pop at a campus store, and yet I have a tough time going out on the weekends. Now a scholarship is great, but let’s be honest- this is the same payment players have been getting for decades. It seems to me that we are bringing in much more these days. I even know some people who paid more than fifty dollars to sit in the top rows of the United Center during the Big Ten Tournament. We deserve some of that, just like any other worker would. It’s weird how some people can get all riled up about a dancing mascot at halftime, but not notice this greater injustice going on right under their noses. I also can’t stand it when people say I am messing up my life by going to the NBA. They say I should get an education. Now, I’ll admit the value of an education, but it’s just not for me right now. I am not Bill Bradley or Shane Bettier. Sitting through an economics lecture is about as useful to me as it is for someone who shovels pigeon dirt. My dream is to simply play basketball, and I can do that right now and get paid very well for it. I can even provide for my family. I thought most people would be happy for me. I know I would be if it were one of my friends. If I really want an education, I can always go back to school in the summers, or sometime later. Maybe when I’m on a plane I can read a book- I hear a lot of kids in college do not even do that. I don’t think I’ll miss the “college lifestyle” all that much, either. I can understand how hanging with your peers, drinking cheap beer and eating junk food might be fun, but I’d rather hang with famous athletes, drink expensive beer and eat great food cooked by other people. I hope that doesn’t make me a bad guy. Don’t worry; I will still grow as a person without being in college. Believe it or not, tons of baseball players that go straight to the professional level are not emotionally trapped 18 year olds for the rest of their lives. Also, I think a guy like Kobe Bryant has looked more mature lately than his “coach” Phil Jackson- now that Phil has accused Kobe of sabotaging games while still in high school. But in the end it is still about basketball. I realize I have a lot to learn, and I won’t play much at first. But if I work hard I will make it just like Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett did. Now these players are the poster-children of the NBA. Maybe the NBA isn’t as good as it was in the late eighties and early ninety’s, but is that really because kids like me are in the league? Anyway, would you rather have a young, athletic guy off the bench or an old arthritic one? At any rate, I am going pro. Basketball might have some problems. I just don’t think having hardworking, talented young players in the NBA is one of them.” Now for the next step up, we journey into what used to be essential to a great NBA career, college. College basketball is bigger and better than ever today. We have young talented athletes, pursuing their dreams in a proper way. They play their sport, all while getting a brain full of knowledge. The problem with getting these big-ticket players to stay in college, or go at all, is money. Today’s universal language is money. Today’s best high school athletes are offered full-ride scholarships to play basketball at an elite school. They can do what they love, and get their education, free of charge. This sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime to any ordinary “Joe,” but to the athletes that have the opportunity to make millions, this is up for debate. Only one percent of high schools athletes get full ride scholarships to a college, and only another one percent of those make it professionally. Odds are against the athlete. The complaint that most college athletes have today is “where does the money go?” The money that these big name athletes bring in, almost all of it goes to the school. This is why a major university would want a star athlete; they bring in revenue. Every ticket sold, every jersey worn, brings in money to the university, and to the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). Athletes are forbid to receive any of this money. They cannot give any money by a representative of the university, or the NCAA. An athlete on a full scholarship is forbid to have a job during the school year. These athletes see absolutely no money or income, accept what they have, what their parents have, and what they make on their own, not claiming it on their taxes. It is a popular trend now days for a student athlete to accept their scholarship, and use the college stage to showcase their talent to the world, agents, team owners, and give them a great chance to be accepted into the NBA. They use the college, and then leave after one year to enter the NBA draft. These are wasted scholarships that could have been used on an individual who wants an education as well as pursuing their athletic dreams. Now we move up another step on the ladder of greatness, to the pinnacle of steps on ladders, the National Basketball Association. The NBA is full of excitement, hype, loud crowds, enormous arenas, women, and more money than the state of Idaho could produce in a fiscal period. This is attractive, to young, athletic athletes. This is what fulfills most athletes’ dreams. This is what makes up the NBA. The NBA was, and for the most part, still is the greatest combination of basketball players in the entire world. The league has been shifting in an awkwardly pattern as of the last couple of years. There have been more and more underclassmen, and high school graduates entering the NBA draft, and making it onto a NBA team. This has lowered the quality of play since the early nineties and prior. Now, it is not to say that these young new athletes are now good, but their fundamentals, and mental ethic, and work ethic are questionable when it comes to the past standards of the NBA. At any rate, these new young players are making some fresh new dollars. Kevin Garnett, who was drafted right out of high school in 1995, signed a contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves for $125 million dollars, over seven years. There are people in the United States that do not make that much in a lifetime. Thousands on a day-to-day basis wear these players’ jerseys. Every time a consumer buys one of their jerseys, they see a little sum of that income. Not only are they basketball players, but they also become members of the modeling industry. They are “marketable” and clothing lines, shoe apparel, and everyday products flock to get their endorsement or attention. This also is how these NBA stars bring in more income a year. Some ask if these players being paid too much are worth it, and also if it makes it unfair to those kids who have no choice but to reach for that goal. The NBA does a lot to help out in their local communities, and to reach out to the children and less fortunate. Children see this and they know what they want to do. What could be better in the eyes of a child than to get to play basketball for a living, making millions, and helping other children out. These dreams quickly become fallacies as they enter the upper grades, greatly disappointed in realizing that so many more kids have greater and better abilities than they do. Is there any way that the NBA could possibly not be geared towards the youth of America? Will this solve the problem we are faced with today? A child relying on false dreams is not the way to bring up a child. The biggest talk among the NBA today is about a high school junior names LeBron James. It is difficult not to hear his name during a sports cast. LeBron is said to be ready for the NBA. His skills match among the best the NBA has to offer. LeBron lives in Akron, Ohio and attend St. Mary’s St. Vincent High School. This is a rather small private school, in the urban part of Akron. LeBron is a seventeen year old prodigy of the game of basketball, said to be the next Michael Jordan. He has the scoring ability, the passing ability, the attitude, and the poise of an NBA superstar. He has the street credibility that even Jordan did not have. What makes his game so spectacular is his ability to play the game in his head, before it happens. (Wahl, 64) He can visualize scenarios, and he knows how to react at an instant. This mental ability is key to basketball, in reading his opponent’s eyes, and their tendencies, and the movement of their legs. The attendance at his games averages around five thousand. They had to move out of their 1500 seat gymnasium to University of Akron’s five thousand-seat arena. St. Mary’s St. Vincent’s averages more in attendance that University of Akron men’s basketball. Nonetheless, James is a 6’7”, 225-pound guard who averages 29.6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists per games for his high school. James already has the biggest shoe contract in history, with the two biggest names in shoes, Nike and Adidas. These shoe contracts are frozen on ice until he declares himself eligible for the NBA draft. Agents, and representatives constantly meet with James and his family just to keep in touch. He already has a relationship with Adidas in that they have given him custom made shoes, and he got to help in designing his teams uniforms, which is sponsored by Adidas. “At this age LeBron is better than anybody I’ve seen in 37 years in this business, including Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett,” says Sonny Vaccaro, the Adidas rep that signed the first shoe deals with Jordan (for Nike), Bryant, and McGrady. (Wahl, 64) James is already a friend with some of the biggest names in the NBA today. Shaquille O’Neal has attended his games before, and he is also best friends with Celtics star Antoine Walker. The question here is why should LeBron go to college? He has been brought up in a violence filled community, lived off of ends meat, and has his whole life, set for him. Why should he go to college, risk injury, and set aside millions of dollars for four years? If there was ever an exception to going to college this might be it. There is no doubt that if he went to college for four years, stayed healthy, and worked on his game, he would definitely be one of the greatest players ever to play in the world. But why do the homework, why sacrifice so much time? Why risk a lifetime of wealth and prosperity for a measly for years of stress and no income? This is one athlete who deserves to play in the NBA, but could only benefit from the greatness of college basketball. We have seen other athletes in other sports play while they are still in high school, or still in college. This is common in tennis, gymnastics, and golf. One of the best examples is Tiger Woods. He left Stanford two years early to play in the Professional Golf Association (PGA). He eats, sleeps and drinks golf, ever since he was a child. His father pushed him more than anyone else, almost forcing him to be a golfer. His father disciplined tiger harshly and some question the validity of Earl Woods motives. Nevertheless, all this stress and work has paid off for an obviously gifted athlete. He is breaking records right now, as we speak. He has no need to go back to school; he is already financially set for life, and he is one of the greatest athletes, as a person to walk the earth. Anyone who says you must go to college to be the best at what you do, including life, could find exception to Tiger Woods. When you look at today’s urban neighborhoods, you think of one thing, Young black children, on the playground, playing basketball. Today’s black youth see the NBA players, which are eighty percent black, and see their older brothers and sisters and friends playing America’s urban game, basketball. Most of these kids have less than adequate incomes in their homes. They either come from single income homes, or broken homes, or no homes at all. Why would the money a fame of the NBA not be appealing to them? Most of these kids see it as their only way out of where they are. They can take themselves as well as their family out of the area they live in. Everyday, they play on the streets, after school, or practice, just to be better than their neighbor, or try to replicate the latest move applied by Allen Iverson. This is where we find our youth relying on false dreams. They believe that basketball is their only way out of their current lifestyle. They would put anything on hold, just to be in the NBA, making better of themselves, living the American dream. So many athletes today think that they have what it takes, but they have no clue what the mental capacity has to be for an NBA star, balancing time for their job, their family, dealing with the media and losing their personal lives. Once these kids realize, or harshly find out that they are not good enough to be in the NBA, or even on a college level, they know no other way. They have a choice to either give up, or to find something else they excel at. America hopes that these young people know there is more out there for them and it takes some time to find what that is. There have been many alternatives thrown out into the air about how to keep kids in school, or even keeps kids from going to the NBA unprepared. One of these things is the minor league of basketball. This is something already taking place, especially down south and on the east coast. Basically, you can play in this league out of high school, or anytime after that, but you must not have played in the NBA. You get paid a mediocre salary, and you have a shot at making it to the pros. You cannot be in the league for more than four years, this should tell the player that is, and that he has no chance, and it is time for him to find a new career. Another alternative is paying, or compensating college scholarship athletes. This is very debatable. What makes college athletics so great is that when you see a kid graduate from four years of school, playing his sport, moving on to play professionally, you truly know that they played their college ball for the love of the game. They sacrificed all the money, time, and kept hitting the books, just to make their game that much better and to attain a NCAA Title. Truly, that is a star athlete, who wants to win, and who loves what he is so fortunately able to do. Compensating these scholarship athletes will take all that away. It will defeat the purpose for college athletics, no matter what sum of money, be it one hundred dollars a month, or two hundred dollars a week. Also, Title IX of the NCAA regulates that what happens for one scholarship athlete, it must apply to all scholarship athletes. So even if you do pay one hundred dollars a month to the basketball athlete, this means all women’s and men’s teams would have to be included in this deal. The NCAA and its universities and colleges just could not afford this. One other way that has been discussed about how to keep athletes in school is an insurance policy. Basically what this would do is someone would estimate their worth in their professional field, and they would have a policy, based on that estimate, that if they suffered a career ending injury, they would be compensated up to that amount. This might provide some relief and comfort to some athletes, but this will not solve our problem. Kids want their money now, and in greater sums. What this all boils down to is the athletes mental understanding of his or her game. They know what is best for the sport, and they know what is best for them, it is their decision on who benefits. Some athletes will leave school, and play professionally, get paid millions and never set foot on an academic institution again. This shows that they wanted the money, they have it, and now they will move on in their financially fulfilled lives. The other type of athlete goes to their four year college, realizes that they can be of more assistance to the world through what they have learned, and apply themselves in today’s workforce, dropping all their athletic dreams behind them. This is a definite rarity today. We would be lucky to see an outstanding athlete give up their professional dream to serve the world in a hospital, or a courtroom, or even in a community center in the inner city of their hometown. There are also those athletes who will leave school early, chase their dream, and fulfill their dream. After all this, they will go back to their place of study and finish their education, and continue learning in today’s world. This shows that they know what is best, and they know what is most beneficial to them in today’s world, and they want to acquire that, and put their knowledge to work. Then there is your athlete who finishes their four years of college, gets their degree, is an outstanding athlete and person in their field, and fulfills their dreams, while showing the youth of America what it is to live your dream, all while doing what will benefit the world at the same time. This is what can make our country so great. The choice we have, to do what is best for us, and our country. It is up to us to decide what is most important, money, paper with a set value to it, or knowledge and understanding, that will last us until out physical bodies cannot make use of it any more. The choice is ours. Bibliography: Works Cited and Consulted Bembry, Jerry. “New League for Young Players is Forming.” The Sporting News. December 7, 1998. http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/articles/19981221/124131.html Carter, A. CinQue. “Athletes Should Stay in School Before Relying on False Dreams.” The Daily Bruin. Thursday, October 29, 1998. http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/98/10.29/sports.carter.html Davis, Allen. “Columnist Offers Ideas on Improving College Sports.” Kansas.com. May 4, 2001. http://www.kansan.com/arch/2001spring/05_04_01/sports/daviscol.html Donald, Reggie. “From High School Athlete to Pro Athlete.” “Going Pro at 16.” WJZ 13. Thursday, June 15, 2000. wysiwyg://69/http://www.wjz.com/now/story/0,1597,205666-367,00.shtml Haymond, Adrian. “Going to Pros Early has Cons; Student-Athletes Must Beware.” The Daily Bruin. May 27, 1999. http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/99/05.27/view.haymond.html Lewerenz, Dan. “Paying Players: Is it Worth the Cost?” Collegian. Thurday, June 20, 1996. http://kstatecollegian.com/issues/v100/su/n156/spt-pay4play-lewerenz.html Lundy, Gary. “NBA Minor League isn’t a Bad Idea.” Fanatic Zone. Friday, June 2, 2000. http://www.big12.net Orokunle, Fola. “What’s Wrong With Going Pro?” The High School Internet Network. June 7, 2001. wysiwyg://78/http://www.ihigh.com/0,1773,2_7_0_39263,00.html Sivasubramanian, Raj. “High School to NBA? Bad News…” Georgia Tech News. May 15, 1998. http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/nique/issues/spring1998/may15/eds.html Trenkle, Andy. “Go Pro, Young Man.” Daily Illini.com. Tuesday, April 17, 2001. http://www.dailyillini.com/apr01apr17/sports/stories/column01.shtml Wahl, Grant. “Ahead of His Class.” Sports Illustrated. February 18, 2002. Wetzel, Dan. “He’s Ready Now, but James must Wait for Hoops Riches.” CBSSportsline.com. January 16, 2002. http://cbs.sportsline.com/b/page/pressbox/0,1328,4851404,00.html “What is an Amateur Athlete?” Gball At Center Court. http://www.gballmag.com/ccamateurism.html Zollo, Rick. “Ricky Davis: Getting His NBA Degree.” SportsJones. August 24, 2001. http://www.sportsjones.com/sj/183.shtml Word Count: 3922
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