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Check That Sense Of Entitlement - Apr 21, 2008
posted by: Josh
Jim Halley recently conducted an interesting roundtable discussion with four elite high school basketball players. The results of the conversation were printed in USA Today on Friday morning. If you're interested in who said what among the four high school student-athletes (Brandon Jennings, Drew Gordon, Ed Davis and Kemba Walker), check out Halley's story. Otherwise, here are a couple of the quotes that cost me shuteye this weekend. • "(Players) should get paid. Enough to get you by, like an allowance." I recognize that many prospective and current student-athletes don't always walk around campus with full wallets, but I've known plenty of non-student-athletes who've had to watch their dollars in college. Those non-athletes don't receive the free meals, housing and tuition that their basketball classmates do - so how can a 17-year-old kid say he needs more to "get by?" There are millions of students who would be thrilled with a free education, and the sense of entitlement here is downright disturbing. The education will be free - FREE. Does anyone know how big a deal that is? But perhaps that sense of entitlement propagates the minds of the elite hoopsters because their Plan B is to play professional basketball. Education isn't on the minds of many of these kids and that's truly unfortunate. There's nothing wrong with hoping to play professional sports, but the opportunities are few and far between. Just 0.03 percent of high school players move on to the professional level and if you've ever seen a torn ACL, you know that a plan B has to involve something off the court. In my opinion, the NBA's 19-year-old limit is probably a disservice to basketball student-athletes. I've always thought that people should have the right to earn a living at 18-years-old, especially if they can go fight overseas. But once they commit to coming to college, there should be a three-year minimum stay before the professional leagues can come calling again - baseball and football do this well. If the four kids Halley interviewed are confident they can make the jump to the professional ranks right now, they should be free to go and get paid. If they decide to attend college, however, it shouldn't be in a minor-league capacity - there has to be an investment in academia. Otherwise, the legitimacy of the amateur enterprise is severely threatened. I will never flex on my opinion that student-athletes shouldn't be compensated - scholarship athletes get more than enough in the way of tuition, food, etc. If they're in college, they need to be learning, not just swinging by for a few games. And they need to remember that plenty of their starving theater/science/business-minded classmates would likely trade packages with them in a heartbeat. 
CommentsHonestly what more do these kids want? Many people all over the world MHL - "They want to be compensated for the here and now." Since pro basketball is a career in which a high level of physical ability is required, pro ball players (in every sport) are fighting the clock of old age. You and I sit in our cubicles and can make money in those chairs for decades, but thats not true for pro sports. And Josh - since the interview took place with four players that could very likely fall in that 0.03% window, that stat is not really needed in this conversation. Highly talented athletes need to be treated like others in college that are highly talented. And if the highly talented engineering or music students get to 'leave school early', free of contractual obligations or rules, so should ball players. You almost can't blame kids coming into college athletics for having on over-inflated sense of entitlement. These kids are nationally ranked by web sites while they are in grade school. That has to go to a kid's head. I just don't see the need for someone to sit around and say Kid A is the best third, fourth, fifth or sixth-grader in the country. The key is having an adult around who can temper this sense of entitlement that can develop. Someone has to tell them the slim reality they face at becoming a professional athlete. You're right, Mike, highly-talented engineering and music students can leave school early, but if opportunities dry up, they haven't lost any eligibility in school by "turning pro." I'm the first one to say kids should have the opportunity to go play professionally - and they do. Nobody has said an 18-year-old can't go overseas for a year or two if he doesn't want to go to school. But, the NCAA should not be a minor league/holding zone. If you want to go to college and play basketball, great, but academics need to be a major part of the equation. Mike makes a valid point, though it's not exactly on the subject of this article. If somebody, be it a musician or basketball player, wants to leave college to pursue his or her career dreams, that is a right that he or she has and nobody should stand in the way of it. I think what Josh was saying in the article is that if one wants to be a professional basketball player, fine. If one wants to be a college student and use basketball as an avenue to a free education, that's fine too. What isn't fine is when a basketball player is passing time (though not necessarily many credits) representing good ole State U. when the sole purpose of his being there is to make sure he stays in some kind of limelight until he turns 19 so he can legally join the NBA (but also wanting to be a professional, as in being paid, while playing for State U.) Post a Comment |
  
The key is having an adult around who can temper the sense of entitlement that can develop. Someone has to tell them the slim reality at becoming a professional athlete.
- G
   
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