AAU Basketball

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

         Underclassmen are leaving the NCAA early to pursue fame and fortune in the NBA. They want fame, money, and glamour that comes with life in the NBA. When you break down college athletics, everyone gets paid but the players. Mike Lupica writes, ÒCollege basketball has been using these kids for years,

Lebron James and Freddy Adu are both young athletes and with millions in their pockets with a countless number of endorsement contracts. Whether it is high school athletes skipping college and discontinuing the development of their education for millions of dollars, or teenagers signing contracts with businesses for massive amounts of money, youth sports programs are changing rapidly. However, American high school athletes are not financially, physically, or mentally prepared to tackle and endure the pressures of professional sports.

There are many high school basketball phenoms that are scouted by pro teams even when they are in high school. A select few in the past have gone straight to the NBA out of high school and had a lot of success, while some players go to college all four years to develop their skills at the next level. However, there are athletes that will waste one year at the college level just so they could get to the NBA. Why would you waste one year of your life when you could have already been in the NBA a year earlier? Basketball players should either go to college all four years and enhance their skills and get a solid education. If not, skip college and go straight to the NBA, rather than wasting a year of your life, and possibly a classroom seat for a person who wanted to get an education.

This shows these athletes would do better off with the professional help of the NBA. A major part of my action plan is to provide these athletes with the option to either attend a college or university for one year and then enter into the NBA draft or become drafted straight out of high school with the understanding that they will have to play for that specific teams developmental league for one year before joining the actually team itself. Ultimately, this plan would allow athletes to receive the financial benefits needed in the short term while still developing and preparing themselves for years in the NBA.

All of the publicity that is attained by success, and the possibility of this success, places a great deal of pressure and stress on these young single-sport athletes. This stress and pressure takes the fun out of some sports. Youth sports are becoming serious and based more on winning than on having a great time and learning good sportsmanship. Adu points out the winning mindset of athletes in this day and age when he says, “Teams will do anything to win the game. My coach told me to expect that going in and that is exactly how it was. . .I felt like everybody was out to get me” (Goodall, 2003). This

“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, that’s all their is to it” - Adam Vinateri (American Football Player). That quote sticks out for one reason; to me it indicates that in order to develop into the “best” or among the best, you must compete against the best. Actually my interpretation might not be that far off; according to Sports Illustrated, “What seems obvious, though, is that only a small fraction of the one-and-done players in this sample completely flamed out in the NBA,” “Only a handful turned into stars – and even a smaller number into true superstars – but on average, a majority of them managed to play significant roles in the league for at least a few years.” “So I ask, if these players are missing out on such important “development” by skipping the full college basketball experience, why are they producing at a higher level than their peers?”(Moore, SI) So players not only benefit from don’t actually “flame out” and out of a job after electing to either skip college or go 1 full year. It doesn’t stop there; Kevin Pelton at ESPN, crunched numbers between players who went to college one year (One and Done) and players who attended more than one; logged their first 500 minutes and the NBA. The numbers taken by an average concluded that the One and

On the other hand though, playing professional sports is all African-American kids can dream of. Most of them live in low poverty places and most of their parents are not around and they didn’t go to college and finish high school. So when they feel they have a talent, most of them try to use that talent or special skill they think they have as a quicker way to upgrade their lifestyle instead of the long tedious process

In the last ten years many young and talented high school basketball players have chosen to enter the NBA draft. These 17 and 18 year olds decide to skip college, and instead they choose to take a big risk and enter the NBA, hoping to become stars and earn millions of dollars. In many cases, these youngsters’ careers are a failure because they don’t turn out as talented as they thought to be. They end up spending only a few seasons in the NBA because they are not good enough to compete at that level. Many of them have to move on to doing other things, such as playing basketball overseas, doing everyday jobs, or going back to college to earn a degree.

They can play in Europe, they can play in the D-League, they can go to college. This is a not a social program, this is a business rule for us" (Harrigan, 2012). http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2012/04/are_one-and-done_players_bad_f.html. However, many choose to not play overseas, or within the D-League because the NCAA is a much better way for players to promote their skills to NBA teams and executives.

The first reason a high school basketball prospect should go to college instead of going overseas is because, they would have to adjust to a totally new culture. ESPN’s college basketball

Basketball players entering the draft out of high school have been on the minds of NBA Commissioner David Stern and basketball fans across the world for the past few years. For several years, Stern has

Furthermore, There have been many busts in the NBA that have spent 1 year in college and went straight to the NBA. Greg Oden is a great example. Greg Oden was drafted november 1 overall in 2007 a bust in the NBA which means that he did not even come close to exceeding his expectations and rushed into the draft without the right preparation. Greg Oden was one of the biggest busts in NBA history only averaging 8 points per game in 3 NBA Seasons being on the sidelines for 3 seasons. It was all downhill for him. These players like Greg Oden thought they would be good enough for the NBA declaring after 1 year of College, Injuries and lack of skill progression have put them on the sidelines, the bench, and out of a

Dirk Nowitzki is a great example of an European who was able to make it as a superstar in the NBA, he still travels home during the off season to visit family and work out in his old gym, which he now calls his summer gym because he only gets a chance to exercise there in the summer. By coming to the NBA to play basketball he has adapted our language as well as slang from MTV, BET and the NBA. Since Dirk has come to the NBA he has improved his rebounds by three a game every three years making him a better player offensively off the boards and defensively off the boards. His European background helped shape him into the best basketball player he could be there but he needed better competition in order to further improve his game. He still trains with his same trainer and improves in the off season, but he would not be as good as he is today without playing against the best basketball players in the world.