It’s Time to Start Paying College Athletes Essay

While it is unfortunate that many of these athletes will be unable to immediately afford college, even with full-ride scholarships, becoming a pro athlete is easier than ever without a college degree. In fact, the amount of NBA athletes being drafted from outside of the college level is peaking (Business Insider), meaning that many of the players that were too poor to go to college and instead played professional basketball overseas are being drafted as NBA players. For athletes who had full-ride Division I scholarships in hand, obtaining a professional job overseas is hardly an issue. As it happens, LiAngelo Ball, an average basketball recruit for UCLA (who Adrian Wojranowski of ESPN predicted would never join the NBA and would never start for UCLA), recently took his talents to a Lithuanian professional team, where he will prepare for a possible NBA future. As a mediocre college prospect, LiAngelo Ball is a great example of the process impoverished athletes can go through to be successful.

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.

Now, paying these athletes doesn’t have to be for everyone. Only the high caliber, D1 athletes. The D1 athletes put in all this time and effort to get a scholarship, but don’t see any money. Now that’s not right. These D1 caliber players don’t come around all the time. There are not many of them. Plus the schools that do have these players are super rich. “These teams not only provide their supporters with a steady source of entertainment, but their performance also helps bring notoriety and pride to the universities they represent. College athletics, especially the so-called "revenue sports" of men 's basketball and football, is now a multi-million dollar business that is marketed, packaged, and sold in the same manner as other commercial products” (Acain).

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.

One of the top reasons that high school players choose to skip college is because they can make a lot of money instead of getting an education in school. High school players need to think about what they could get out of college before making a decision to go to the NBA. For example, Tim Duncan, who has been one of the most dominant players in the NBA in the last five years, went to college for all four years and then went to the NBA. Duncan attended Wake Forest University where he earned a degree in Psychology, and had a successful college basketball career. In the NBA, Duncan has been a two-time MVP, has two NBA championships, and has been named to the first-team all NBA five of the six years he has been in the league (Duncan Player Profile).

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.

On Tuesday, Duke Blue Devils freshman Harry Giles declared for the 2017 NBA Draft. Having entered the college basketball season as a then sure-fire lock to be a lottery selection, Giles' current stock has him going anywhere from the middle of the first round to the middle of the second.

Lebron James, the first pick taken in this year’s draft, may be the prototype for an athlete having immediate fame and wealth by jumping straight to the NBA. Almost undoubtedly, he has set the bar for years to come. Before he even played in an actual NBA game, he already had his own commercial and shoe deals. When he was a senior in high school, ESPN and ESPN2 were already publicizing his regular season games whenever they had the chance. Amazingly, as a junior in high school, he was already being considered the next Michael Jordan (Broussard).

College athletes should get paid because they are risking their career of getting hurt, and they will be prepared for the pros. Getting hurt is a big role of ruining a college athletes chance of going pro, (NCAA) makes the athletes that have a chance of going pro get insurance and NCAA covers that insurance which is 90k. When a college athlete gets, hurt they don't pay the medical bill the college does, I wouldn't expect colleges to pay for an injury. When college athletes get hurt, they lose college credits for being in the hospital and not being in class, their athletes and play for your college give them a break and give them their credit. A college athlete named Brandon Roy, who played for the University Of Washington got hurt in a college game and had knee problems since then, in 2006 he made it to the NBA played for Minnesota Timberwolves got traded to the Portland Trailblazers then retired in 2011 then returned in 2012 and played for Minnesota then got hurt the 5th game of the season and then he announced he was done for good.

In order to make it in the NBA, black students will have to finish high school and go to a college. The NBA rules states in order to be eligibility for the NBA draft the one-and-done rule is in effect (Wikipedia). Meaning one year of college is all your need. Despite this, black students feel this bias towards them, and compared the MLB Draft Rule, “High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college” (Major League Baseball) can still join the MLB. The black community feels this not equal and fails to gives hope to some black students, a great example

Kobe Bryant was drafted straight out of high school in 1998, in 2003 Bryant was accused of raping a hotel maid in a Colorado hotel. Going to college would not change what Kobe allegedly did, but it would have enhanced his decision making because he would have more experience with situations like

If he had made the jump from high school to the NBA, he would have been able to make his career debut in the NBA and would have had a smoother transition into the NBA. Shown by the college basketball career of Kyrie Irving, playing in college can affect a player’s NBA draft overall in the occasion that the player gets

Devin Booker for example had a great career at Kentucky but decided to leave in an attempt to go pro. He was drafted by the Phoenix Suns and has had a great 2 years there. He was at Kentucky for one year and then was drafted. During his one year his team went to the final four and was defeated by Wisconsin. Once again, like Lonzo Ball, he decided to leave and go the the league instead of stay and give Kentucky a great chance to win it

Something positive can be taken from the precedents Thurman and Fizer; both at least started a college education and made positive contributions to the game. Each year the number of high school athletes that go directly to the NBA increases. In recent years Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett have become household names with huge contracts. Both of them have risen to stardom after making the jump directly from high school. With all of the hype surrounding these success stories, little is mentioned about those not so fortunate. Like Garnett, Ronnie Fields attended Farragut Academy. In 1997 Fields attempted to follow Garnetts path to the NBA rather than accept a scholarship from a major university. Fields was not drafted and is not currently involved with any organized basketball (NBA.com). High school athletes need to realize that the fame of Bryant and Garnett are rare

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is like the NFL, but different in ways. The NBA draft only has two round and thirty picks. That means each team gets two picks. An athlete must play one year of college basketball before entering the NBA draft. Since this rule has been enforced; the one and done players has been a problem. One and done means, A great basketball player will only stay one year with their college team; Then he will enter the draft the next year. This is leaving NBA player with only one year of college education. Hickman stated twenty-one percent of the NBA has a full College education.