Adam Silver 'rethinking' position on one-and-done rule

[sufandu]

It's too bad but there will be kids who have no business thinking they are ready to play in the NBA skipping college and declaring. A few years of kids being rejected by the NBA though should help make kids and their 'handlers' be more realistic about their need for development. It would then be up to the NCAA to put in a 2 or 3 year rule. Those other kids not drafted would still have the D League option. They may realize though that the option of playing overseas will be more difficult without a college coach's connections and referrals.

The handlers will never care because they move on to the next batch of kids. The kids won't know any better because their egos have been pumped up since they were 12 and they'll listen to the handlers that don't care about them. Nobody else will care because guys don't get publicity for NOT making it, they get forgotten.

The NBA needs to put their money where their mouth is and invest in a full minor league system and institute the MLB rule.

 

[Waltdods]

I'm not sure it really matters. There is going to be a draft every year. 60 guys or whatever are going to get drafted no matter what, and they're going to cost the same no matter what.

I think a few things explains why the Players' Association position.

First, there's some general commitment to the idea that the NBA should not be imposing restrictions on players as a matter of principle.

Second, in the long term, the Players Association would probably favor a move away from using college as a minor league, and towards a real, for-pay minor league. That potentially moves some of those big pockets of cash sloshing around the NCAA to players. Rules that force, or even strongly encourage, kids to go to college will tend to perpetuate the existing model.

Finally, there is a probably an element of knowing this is something the owners want, and using it is a bargaining chip.

 

[Hoo's That]

I don't understand, even in concept, how you can be enrolled in enough academic credits in the spring semester to maintain eligibility and status as a student and then essentially drop out of school in late March and still end up in good standing? When I went to school you had to take a reasonable number of credits to be an active student; you had an add/drop deadline and if you were still in enrolled in the course after the add/drop deadline you either had to complete the coursework, take an incomplete or take the the grade you "earned" not showing up. The later two options would not leave you in good academic standing. How do they end up in good academic standing if they leave campus?

I have no idea how dook manages to pull this off. They sold their souls to win and now they have to live with it. I imagine that at least some of the OADs continue to go to class until the semester is over, but then again, I only stopped believing in unicorns last year.

I'd also like to believe that a day of reckoning is coming when the VLF retires. If the academics at dook don't end the OAD there, there's no hope for change.

 

[Deano]

Of course it was. Those were all future NBA alltime greats. That era is over. The college game will never be what it was because players that have both elite athleticism and skill, like the guys you mentioned, will never spend any real time in college again.

Gone are the days when you could see an elite level player play for your school for a few years and then carry that on to an elite NBA career.

I would LOVE to see it go back to this way, but I think you right unless someone with half-brain can figure this out it will continue to be bad year in and year out.

 

[sufandu]

I would LOVE to see it go back to this way, but I think you right unless someone with half-brain can figure this out it will continue to be bad year in and year out.

There's nothing to figure out. The NBA doesn't want elite talent spending (Adam Silver even said wasting) time in college. Elite talent will never spend appreciable time in college ever again. That, more than any other reason, is why the game will remain uglier than it used to be. We can change all the rules we want, shorten shot clocks, improve freedom of movement, but it all comes back to talented players making shots, and those guys are all but bypassing college now and probably will be bypassing it in the future.