If you follow college basketball, even peripherally, then you know who John Wall is. If you don’t then here is some background info on him. Wall is a freshman guard at the University of Kentucky, the consensus #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft and one of the most hyped college players of the past decade.
He is also 19 years old and in 5 months he will be a millionaire.
Wall is just one of many young men that will be leaving the NCAA after only year to enter the NBA draft and pursue their dream of becoming an NBA legend.
This may seem like a dream scenario for the NBA to have a guy like John Wall in their organization but in reality it is anything but. By allowing players like Wall to enter the NBA after only 1 year in the NCAA a flawed system has been created. This current system encourages players to leave school early thus rushing into a league that they, for the most part, are ill equipped to handle. The NBA season is much longer than the college season (82 games in the NBA vs 38 in NCAA) , the competition is much stronger and the room for error is much smaller.
In essence by allowing these players to join the NBA after only 1 year the league is ruining its “farm system” and diluting its talent pool with players who have no business being in the league. Players who stay in college longer generally have a better understanding of the game because they had more time to grow and mature as players. They also gain more experience and perspective which is invaluable when entering the NBA.
Yes there are guys like Tyreke Evans, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose who made the jump to the NBA after only 1 year in school without skipping a beat, but for every exception to the rule there are 10 guys that prove the rule.
DeMar DeRozan (inconsistent), Jrue Holliday (averaging a 5 pts/game), BJ Mullens (scrub), JJ Hickson (career bench player), Kosta Koufas (awful), Donte Green (bench player), DeAndre Jordan, Bill Walker (playing in the D-League), Mike Conley Jr. (not as good as AI), Brandan Wright, Spencer Hawes (getting better but is still dusty), Thaddeus Young, Javaris Crittenton (soon to be in jail) and Daeqoan Cook (career highlight will be winning 3pt contest) were all freshmen when they were selected in the 1st round of the NBA draft and so far they have proven to be ineffective NBA players.
Here are 2 steps the NBA should take to solve this problem:
1) 1) Allow potential NBA players to take “Basketball” as a major. If people can major in Art and Music why can’t someone major in Basketball? Let the courses be about the history of the game and about life as an NBA player. Kids could learn about the dangers of being young, rich and famous. This would better prepare players for the new challenges they will face once they enter the NBA.
2) 2) Make the minimum amount of time spent in college 2 years. This would put the NBA on par with the NFLs eligibility rules and it would force kids to actually have to go class. Maybe the kids would form a bond with the school and get some pride and want to stick around to win something like Tim Tebow did with Florida. This might encourage a few more kids to stay for 4 years and actually graduate which is supposed to be the ultimate goal of going to college is it not?
But does the NBA want to solve this problem? Do they care that the majority of ‘one and done’ kids are terrible or are they more focused on the ones that turn out to be great? Does the league mind that they are robbing these kids of a chance to get an education? God forbid someone get a career ending injury. What would they fall back on? I mean Mike Conley Jr. isn’t qualified to run a Dairy Queen let alone the Memphis Grizzlies offense.
As long as there are players like Rose, Evans, Durant and Wall out there the NBA will do their best to get them into the league as fast as possible. If that means that they are diluting their talent pool with unprepared and underdeveloped players then so be it.
I understand that the NBA is a business and that priority #1 is filling the seats but they need to recognize that they are hurting their own product. Attendance numbers are down across the board and that might have something to do with the amount of dusty players that are currently in the league. Yes guys like John Wall will bring out the fans but no one wants to see John Wall dribble around a bunch of teenagers who don’t understand how to play system basketball.
It must also be noted that a lot of people that watch the NBA also watch college basketball. People who follow college basketball are often more hardcore than your average NBA fan. Why is this important? Guys that stay at a school for 4 years, like Tyler Hansbrough, gather a following. UNC fans love him and I am sure that more than a few of them started paying attention to the Pacers once he got drafted by them.
But who got attached to Thaddeus Young? He was in and out of Georgia Tech in an instant. The man up and vanished like a fart in the wind. Now he is just another role player in the NBA, a 21 year old that could have been a legend at GT and gained a following that would have supported him into his NBA career. Instead the only people that were excited when he was drafted by the 76ers were his parents and maybe his buddies who figured they would get an Xbox out of it or something.
The NBA needs to smarten up and realize that the current system they have is flawed. It has some success but for the most part it creates too many problems. Change needs to be made and soon or else we might see a starting 5 of Conley Jr, DeRozan, Holliday, Hickson and Hawes. I shudder to even think of it.
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