A Non-Playoff Post: We need a mix don't we?

A not-so-loving view of the 1 and done college rule.

Albom from the Detroit Free Press wrote this blast on college, the NBA and its “one year minimum in college” policy. He is obviously not a fan of the rule and makes some very valid points. To me though, this is like that old washed up cliché or quote of “beating a dead horse.”

Enough already with the ramblings of calling it the “minor leagues” and enough with the overblown analogies and mockeries because things are not changing any time soon. We all know the rule alters the college landscape by allowing players to come to a college when everyone including the coach knows that player will leave after one year. It’s time to accept that this is the way it’s going to be for a while. (Until they raise the limit that is.)

I also don’t think that worrying about the lack of education they are receiving should be of any concern. Do we really think that big time college football players are there for the education? There is no point in laying all this blame on just college basketball when the history of bad student athletes has been with us for decades. College athletics have always been a stepping stone to show off talent before taking a chance on the big stage in hopes of receiving that big fat paycheck. Just because the NBA is forcing their players to be at least 19 doesn’t mean anything has actually changed.


Alert! We have a lack of whites in basketball!

I rarely link to a Bleacher Report because just about anyone can spam up something on there that they feel is important, but this guy actually brings up a great point. He points out that a stat from the other day announced that only 8.2% of the MLB is now black. (Somehow I managed to hear this in my non-TV-watching mode.) Sounds like a pretty low number but what really is the point here? Aren’t all sports seeing dominance by one ethnicity or another these days? Baseball is dominated by Dominican players; basketball with African-Americans; football just off the top of my mind seems to be fairly split between Caucasian and African-Americans; hockey by white crazy Canucks.

This guy is exactly right when asking about the percentage of white players in the NBA. Why don’t we hear that statistic EVER? Just browsing through my tiny little brain, I’m not sure I can name one All-Star that is white and born in the USA. (Someone please tell me on via comment.) It seems like this questions should be brought up for the minority in every sport shouldn’t it?

I could say some things right now that I’m sure some moron would find offensive and then call me a racist so I’ll spare the rest of you the ignorance that will follow, but I do want to pose a couple of questions. Why aren’t ALL the major sporting leagues looking together at the minority races in their sports? Is it time to diversify? Is a diverse league actually worth it? Does it become more competitive or lower the level of play? Should leagues just stick to accepting the “best” players and not care?


Leaving Magic and Bird off of an all-time NBA list?

Amazing short article here that you must read! I love comparisons with today’s game to that of the past. This brings out the “NBA purests” that usually end up sounding like the grouchy old men that will all figured they were.

This guy admits that until the last year or so there was a solid team of 5-7 guys that we all had penciled in as being the greatest at their positions and would easily make up the greatest team ever assembled. Well in recent years we’ve seen some amazing things out of players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James that allowed us to throw their names in the hat. (He also puts KG in this mix but I’m afraid I’ll be leaving him off.)

Can you imagine MJ and Kobe on the court at the same time or LeBron, MJ and Magic running the break? All I can say is, “OOF!” I’m starting to drool just thinking about it. Not being a fan of Bird, I would put LeBron up there any day especially with the untouched potential he has left and the sheer athleticism.

I still remember a quote from an old Michael Jordan video where he said something about how disappointed he was when Magic had left the game early because of his positive HIV test. Jordan felt like he was being cheated by not being able to compete against Bird and Magic during his and their primes and wanted to show the world how great he was. Well I feel the same way about Kobe and LeBron. What would the league have been like with Kobe, Magic, Jordan, LeBron, Wilt, and Shaq all playing at the same time? Oh….my.