I sure as hell am.
How many articles can one write about college basketball now being a “minor league” program? ZZZZZZZZZZ…and put me to bed.
I’m not sure I really care if a player is forced to go to a college of choice for one year and then run off to the NBA. To me the rule is genius, so let’s break it down.
The situation: High school basketball prospects are forced to play one year of college basketball or be 19 years of age before they can become eligible to enter the NBA draft or sign with an NBA team.
- The college benefits by having a superstar NBA prospect for one year…
- The NBA benefits by not having an 18 year old flop…
- The college benefits by having a chance to run straight to an NCAA Chip just like Ohio State almost did with Greg Oden…
- The NBA just saved itself $3+ million by not drafting Jonathan Bender…
- The college just created more buzz for next year’s recruits…
- The NBA just landed itself a more mature and well rounded basketball player…
- The college just landed on TV more and made itself a ton more revenue…
- The NBA now had a chance to evaluate a kid they were looking at for a full year…
- College now has 51* more superstar matchups…
- The NBA is no longer a pre-school…
- College kids that stay for 4 years** have never proven to be better NBA players…
Wow, that is quite a few benefits to both the NBA and NCAA. Here is one negative just to make the NCAA whiners happy:
- There are now, way to many hungry scouts looking to make a buck, so we are stuck with morons from UTEP thinking they are legitimate NBA first rounders.
*51 = the number of underclassmen that entered this year’s draft.
**See Mark Madsen, Ed O’Bannon, and Tyler Hansbrough..
