Stern Says Jennings Playing In Europe Is "A Pretty Cool Thing"
Jennings could end up being a trend setter by playing in the Euro-League. The Association and the NBAPA in their last collective bargaining agreement stopped players from going directly from high school to the NBA. What has resulted in many cases, are players who just go to college for one year, and then go into the NBA Draft. Jennings with his unprecedented move is a pioneer, the question now becomes how many other players will follow his lead starting next year? Will the new rallying cry for basketball players be “Go East Young Man, Go East?”
NCAA President Myles Brand is hoping that what Jennings is doing will prove to be the exception, not the rule. Brand said “I don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of other people. But I would hope and expect that most would want to go to college, not just to play basketball but to get an education.”
President Brand is either extremely naive, or just engaging in spin. The truth is that most collegiate players will never be paid for playing hoops. These young men are our future accountants, dentists, and leaders of industry. But the players that do have the skills to play professionally in most cases, are there for the exposure that playing in the NCAA will give them. If you are “one and done” in other words just going to college for the required one year, an education is not your priority.
The cynical side of me (which seems to come out more often the older I get) says Brand just does not want to see an end to the revenue that the NCAA gets from having future NBA stars even for just a year. College basketball is a huge revenue stream for the NCAA, they don’t want any changes from the status quo.
Stern was the driving force behind raising the age requirement to play in the Association. It turns out he has no qualms about high school players going directly to playing professionally. He just does not want them in the NBA. Stern said “I actually think it’s a pretty cool thing for a kid to do what he’s doing! There’s a big world out there. If you want to play for Rome as opposed to Arizona, go ahead and do what you think is best. It’s a positive development for kids and for the NBA scouts.”
I am sure the NBA Commissioner’s statements did not make Brand feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The NCAA has always been the feeding pool for the NBA, now there is competition for those athletes. And now it basically has the Association’s seal of approval.
Jennings believes he is just the first of many young men from the USA that will make this choice. The Compton, California native said “I think it’s going to change the game a lot. If they don’t change the rule, I think you’re going to see more kids test the waters and try to make a name for themselves overseas.”
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Former ESPN Radio Reporter Jeff Sack covered the NBA, NFL, and MLB for 11 years in Cleveland - The last eight as Sports Director for Metro Networks.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Good pick up on that article.
Raises the question of whether players should be forced into 2 years of collegiate ball if they have no interest in academics (as Jennings has admitted).
October 7th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Paulie Danger,
Thanks for the kind words!
Jeff Sack
November 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Thank you for your thoughtful and intriguing post regarding the widespread impact of Brandon Jennings’ resolution to forego college in favor of playing professionally in Europe. Clearly, his success will be heavily scrutinized and will probably determine whether or not similar choices by high school stars will become the norm or will fade off the radar. With that said, I particularly liked that you expanded your analysis to include the ramifications for all parties involved, from the NBA, to the NCAA, to future high school graduates. To be perfectly honest, I agree wholeheartedly with your “cynical side,” (as I do in most cases involving any sport in which profit is involved) that NCAA President Brand is almost certainly more worried by a potential loss of revenue than he is with the loss of one year of education. Realistically, a player similar to Jennings (whose SAT scores were on the verge of preventing him from playing anyway) is already thinking about the NBA, and would only attend college to market himself in a way that will make him more money in the future, not as a lawyer or a doctor, but as an NBA star. A single year at Arizona would not grant him a degree, nor would he be likely to make much of an attempt at studying anything besides basketball.
In terms of the NBA, I found myself somewhat surprised by Commissioner Stern’s complete approval of the Jennings situation. As you note, he was “the driving force” behind forcing high school graduates to wait at least a year before entering the NBA. If this rule was not intended to force players to attend college for a year in the hopes of preparing them for life in the NBA, I do not understand why it was designed. As I recall, Stern emphasized the maturity factor for instituting the “one and done” statute. In that case, how is an eighteen-year-old mature enough to adapt to life a foreign country, play alongside many others that do not speak his language, and negotiate endorsement deals as well as his contract, but not developed enough to adjust to life in the NBA? Ultimately, I believe that Jennings acted in the best interest of both him and his family. I find it difficult to fault someone for taking advantage of the system to make millions of dollars while honing his game for next year’s draft. I wonder, however, if you share my concern that his success will create false hope for those that will inevitably follow in his footsteps, that will hope to ride what you refer to as the “wave of the future.”