The Sports Doctor: Go Back To School
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by user AWeiner18
Rx: School Comes First
Date filled: Hopefully soon
Patient(s): NBA Commissioner David Stern & NCAA Commissioner Myles Brand
I am writing you this script to prescribe advice on handling student athletes that enter the NBA before graduation. After analyzing players such as JaRon Rush and Omar Cook, I feel that a prescription is necessary for college players who were not drafted or signed by a team. The new NBA draft rule—which allows a player to declare for the draft after one year of college—caused more players to declare early and abandon their pursuit of receiving a college degree.
I prescribe two different types solutions for this growing epidemic. The first medication, which I like to call the “School Comes First” pill, would change the current NBA draft rule by requiring all student-athletes to earn their degree prior to entering the draft. While this prescription may be unpopular to many people because fans would have to wait for players like Ohio State forward Greg Oden to get a degree before being affiliated with the NBA, I feel this rule would benefit both the college and the student.
While the general audience focuses on the wealthy basketball players, such as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, we tend to forget athletes who only focused on their basketball career rather than their college degree without a degree.
Omar Cook was a freshmen sensation at St. John's who set a Division I record for assists. If Cook stayed in the college instead of entering the 2001 NBA Draft, he would have had more time to repair his shooting touch (he shot 36 percent from the floor) and could have developed into an all-around point guard.
Instead, Cook was drafted by the Orlando Magic in the second round and averaged 1.7 points and 2.1 assists per game in twenty-two games over two seasons with Toronto and Portland. Cook is currently playing in Germany.
Another victim of the current early NBA draft malady is JaRon Rush, brother of Kareem (Seattle SuperSonics) and Brandon (a 2007 NBA Draft prospect). Rush entered the 2000 draft after averaging 11.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in two college seasons. He entered the draft with without finishing school and clearly believed that the NBA would give him a new career.
Rush never experienced being neither a draft pick nor a member of an NBA roster.
By requiring players to finish college, they would not be pressured to enter the NBA Draft and would be forced to concentrate on the most important part of college: the academics.
A less potent solution would involve creating a rule that would require an athlete to attend the college they left, if they decide to jump to the NBA early. Players would devote the amount of years they forfeited when they entered the draft by attending classes their first off-seasons as a professional. For example, if this medicine were implicated, Cook would have devoted his first three off-seasons as a professional to attend classes at St. John’s.
I call this the “You Can’t Play Unless You Go to School” pill.
This year’s NBA Draft Class, which is classified as one of the best in years, consists of fifty-nine early-entry candidates, candidates who entered the draft without a college degree, hoping they can live off checks from NBA owners and endorsements.
One of those players is Texas forward Kevin Durant.
Durant, a freshman who is forgoing the remaining three years of college and entering the NBA Draft, may become a star in the NBA if his brain remains solely focused on basketball, his body remains healthy, and his positive spirit continues to thrive. However, if he does get injured at a young age, the rest of his future would look dull without a college degree.
If the NBA developed a new policy that forces the player to attend the college he left prior to graduation, Durant would have a chance to make a new future despite any injury by pursuing a career other than basketball after he finishes his education.
Durant will probably earn millions because, according to ESPN’s Chad Ford, he “is the most talented prospect in the draft.” But not every player who forgoes valuable college years is Durant.
The NBA and collegiate sports programs must decide which type of medication would solve this problem. No matter what they chose, the athletes with high ambitions who don’t succeed will have a second chance make a living with college degree. At the same time, the NBA will not only make millions and repair their image but will make one statement to all future student athletes: sports are not life and death.
Sincerely Yours,
The Sports Doctor
