Basketball Needs to Be Fixed
Professional and college basketball have become very popular in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Millions of dollars a year are spent on apparel, tickets, and television all generated by people's love for basketball.
But in the last couple of years, both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and college basketball have lost a substantial amount of their competition and have caught much criticizim for it. At the heart of this problem is a single cause, greed. The game of basketball has become all about money instead of the game and its fans. This problem needs to be addressed, and the best place to start is with the college players, or more specifically, the NBA draft. The rules and guidelines that pertain to the draft are greatly at fault for the down slide of both college and NBA basketball and they need to be changed before the game down slides into nothing.
The changes that need to be made are simple, underclassmen should not be eligible for the NBA draft; or in other words, if you have years of eligibility left, you should not be eligible to be drafted by an NBA team. What problems would this solve? The answer is most problems in basketball today.
First, college basketball has paid greatly by losing its most talented players to the NBA as many as three years early. This has resulted in not only an overall lessening of the game, but in certain circumstances caused the downfall of once great basketball programs. This is how it happens, colleges recruit players based on what their needs are or what they will need shortly in the future. So let us say that one school has a great core of sophomore and junior players for an upcoming season. The coaches do not have the need or the room for many new top notch players. So all of the top recruits find other schools to go to. Then, let us say that the great core of players leaves for the NBA, leaving the team with mediocre players and a horrible season to look forward to. By the next recruiting period comes around, the school's reputation has been hurt, and so has their chances of landing the top recruits. This continues until the school's once proud basketball tradition is a thing of the past. This situation is not only hypothetical, schools like UNLV, Georgetown,
Seton Hall, and Hous...
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...ard spiral. That is how players' salaries have rose to absurd limits. No one noticed the problem while it was happening, but now that it is a problem there is no real way to fix it. In 1996, a rookie salary cap was put into effect by the NBA to put a limit on beginning salaries, so some measures are being taken. This is a start, but it is not the answer to the problem. If underclassmen were not allowed to come out early, high rookie salaries would not have to be as high, and the players would probably be more accepting of less money than most rookies are getting now, and this would help solve the all- around money problem in the NBA.
Both the NBA and college basketball seem to be in a rut. And as stated before, they reason is the underclassmen leaving school early to make money in the NBA. So what's the solution? Easy, do not let the college players enter the NBA draft early. It would benefit everyone in the future. Of course there would be a transitional period, but the losses would be short and the effects of the change would be evident very quickly. Let the game be played the way it was meant to be played, for the competition and not for the money.
Overall, compelling points exist supporting or not supporting a salary cap in baseball. Teams have the benefit of a salary cap existing, and out of that, a balance in free agency forms and a sense of championship parity develops too. On the other side of the spectrum, teams can use the Moneyball method of recruiting and signing players, along with tax implications and revenue sharing to balance out payrolls. The main factor in deciding if a salary cap is appropriate is the factor of fairness among the teams. Therefore, based off the support the research provides, the implementation of a salary cap is necessary.
Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples. Every time the month of March rolls around, there is always some sense of hype in the air. That’s when the nation’s best college basketball teams compete against each other. It is as celebrated with each college being its own celebrity.
In the collegiate world of sports, basketball has become an increasingly recognized sport among African Americans, predominantly males. The hope of any young basketball player is that one day a scout will come and recruit them into stardom The question that presents itself as a problem to the lucky few who are chosen to go professional, is whether or not an education is more important than a million dollar shoe deal, “The NCAA's (1998) annual six-year study reported that only 33% of Black male basketball players graduated, (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999). Individually, basketball reported the lowest graduation rate in all divisions,” (Robinson, 2004:1). Basketball players have become so idolized in the eyes of young Black male basketball athletes, that the value of education appear to be less important in the development of these young men, “According to Sailes (1997), there is an over-representation of Black males in particular sports and an under-representation in other segments of American society. He provides the example of percentages of Black males competing in the NBA (77%), NFL (65%), MLB (15%), and MLS (16%) in comparison to the fact that fewer than 2% of doctors, lawyers, architects, college professors, or business executives are Black males.”, (Robinson, 2004:1). The idea of the attainment of a professional basketball player’s salary in the NBA, without even having to go to school for the time it takes to earn a degree is very appealing to some players. Those with a wealthy, or even upper-middle class upbringing may not view material assets as a priority. In the Black community, we have theorized that money and success play a more important role than education in most households. Although these two seem to go together, one resulting from the other, this does not apply in the sports world. Our research will examine the role that the family value system plays in influencing Black vs. White male athletes to turn professional, as opposed to obtaining a college degree before turning professional.
Did you know that there are roughly 550,000 male high school basketball players, 15,000 are good enough to make it to play college basketball, one third of that or 5,000 play well enough to make it to division I which is the highest in the NCAA basketball league, and only around 348 go on to play one game in the NBA. On the other hand there are rare cases of players having extraordinary talents and making the jump from high school basketball straight to NBA without any college experience. The debate on this topic is two sided, the first being that the jump from high school to the NBA should not be allowed and the second being that they should be able to do what they want.
If all of the players on the team gets the same amount of playing time, it will be discouraging to the more motivated and harder working athletes, as they feel like their work is worthless. If everyone gets the same amount of time in games, there would be no reason for players to work hard, they are guaranteed to play. Coaches who give equal playing time to student athletes is unfair for more determined players on the
Most players that enter the NBA draft early are 19 or 20 years-old. They are going to end up playing against 25-year-olds that are stronger, faster, and that have had more experience than they have. Along with more experience, they will not be as physically fit because one or two years of college will not do it, and high school will not do it. For example, Lebron James. He is considered one of the best to have played the game, and he went straight out of high school. Imagine if he had gone to college, he would be so much better. So if they leave after the freshman or sophomore year, they will be about five or six years behind and that will make it harder to get a spot on the bench. If they do not make it to the bench, then they will be in the D league for 2 or 3 years to help develop their skills. “The D-League uses a tiered compensation system that's based on experience. Players with ample NBA
It is becoming more and more a trend for high school and underclassmen basketball players to forgo their college eligibility to enter the NBA draft. Most professional sports have restrictions to limit mentally and physically immature players from throwing away their college education to be unsuccessful in the professional ranks. In the National Football League, NCAA football players are not allowed to declare for the pro draft unless they have been in the school’s program for at least three years. In professional baseball and hockey, although they do draft players straight from high school, they have a minor league system set up. These minor leagues allow players the time to develop and still play against an excellent level of competition. This helps their growth process so that when they get into the real big leagues, they are somewhat ready to play and be a factor.
...e players from making the mistakes of players that were not successful after completing just only one year.
Duffer, Mikale J., and Seth L. Feinberg. "Race and the NFL Draft: Views from the Auction Book."
In recent decades, violent crimes in the United States of America have been on a steady decline, however, the number of people in the United States under some form of correctional control is reaching towering heights and reaching record proportions. In the last thirty years, the incarceration rates in the United States has skyrocketed; the numbers roughly quadrupled from around five hundred thousand to more than 2 million people. (NAACP)In a speech on criminal justice at Columbia University, Hillary Clinton notes that, “It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40
High school and college basketball players have started to enter the NBA earlier and earlier as the year's progress. In general, this is resulting in a negative effect to the college programs, the NBA, and the players themselves. Before 1994 there were usually only eight to ten early entries into the NBA. The number grew to 18 in 1995, and an astonishing 40 players in 1996, and 47 in 1997. The number of early entries in the NBA grows to the point where it is a problem that needs to be dealt with by the NBA players association. College basketball is in serious trouble. Of course, any sport would be when it's marquee s...
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the last game that player will ever participate in. On the other hand the player could also go back in and
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The NBA is a desirable basketball hotspot. Domestic players train to be drafted, and International players want to enter the NBA.