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Message: [QUOTE="Flacusian, post: 2564996, member: 264"] I suppose it's not cool to say anything negative about a teenage kid who wants to play the cards the way he sees as best to make his dream of playing in the NBA come true. BUT. To do so at the detriment of a particular College Basketball program is BS. I hope the best for him an al that crappy pseudo "wish him the best" narrative... but there are consequences that are born upon the University and the program you COMMITTED to as well. It's nice in this current 21'st century of " I'll do everything that suits me best" mentality. BUT You COMMITTED to a program... that is made up of other kids just like yourself for the most part... and those kids made decisions about their future based on the assumption that your COMMITTMENT meant that you were COMMITTEDED to coming to Syracuse for …… let's be honest... 1 YEAR. You let a lot of people down... and , make no mistake about it... It's your own prerogative. But... you screwed over a lot of people and kids that would have been your TEAMMATES... by OPTING OUT AT THE LAST MINUTE... Therein lies the problem I have with all of this. The way you conducted yourself PREMPETED what Syracuse could have done on the recruiting front. That's not cool. PERIOD. I don't contest that it is well within your rights... but if you had that notion anywhere inside that brainpan of yours and didn't let on to it at the expense of Syracuse University Basketball... It's not cool. In an effort to be pragmatic on my end as a Syracuse basketball fan... I will say this. I concede wholly that you are entitled to make a decision such as you did to go to the G league and forego one year of College basketball... but in doing so you have essentially done a disservice to Syracuse University Basketball and it's fanbase by co=opting a scholarship for a team that may have had a chance to achieve great things in the coming year. Now.… you leave a program in disarray and one which may feel the effects of your decision reflected in the decisions made by players currently on the team and also of those who are considering committing to Syracuse during the next recruiting period. Frankly... that sucks. the fact is this... We all among the Syracuse fanbase acknowledge the fact that you are a special talent... and that is why we all have been so excited since you made your Pseudo commitment to Syracuse. In the timeline that is Syracuse Basketball you represented the hope of tens of thousands of fans that we could, on the heels of a difficult era of the program, return to the top of the college basketball world and have a team with a palpable chance at pursuing a national title. Your decision had all but extinguished such hopes for all of those who would have idolized you. Again... I get it... in the current era … it's not about winning a NC... its' about the individual player realizing his dream of playing in the NBA, So although I cannot fault you for doing what's best for BAZE... in doing so you have crystalized for all of us who have loved college basketball for all of their adult lives... the fact that the days of latching onto a player who goes out on the floor on any given night and leaves everything he has out there because of love of the Game and the college logo he wears on his uniform...… ARE DEAD AND GONE> I get it... I really do…. but I must say... there is a sense of emptiness that I doubt you would ever have the capacity to understand... that people like myself have experienced as a result of the decision you made... and the manner in which you made it... And that, my young cager…… is a wonderful and magical thing which you and all that come after you will never have the gift of recognizing what I am even alluding to. I do wish you the best... Baze… or whatever it is that you will be referred to as... It is not you... you just happen to be the pivot point which represents the final chapter in the complete and utter demarcation between what was once considered " collegiate basketball" And now the abomination which poses to be amateur collegiate basketball. It there be a positive thing I can garner from what, as a lifelong Cuse fan, one could have... it is this. You are in fact truly a trailblazer in that you have opted to do the G league to NBA route. By doing so you do pull back the curtain of pretense as to what the realities are between amateurism and professionalism and may draw focus on all the surrounding issues which are attendant to the phenomenon. Perhaps some good can come of it. God knows that the sport is in need of it. Go and watch a Utube video which features the likes of Pearl... or Coleman …. or Melo... that my friend... is the kind of magic that you won't find anywhere in the NBA... or in College basketball... and you might have had the opportunity to be the " last guy " who was part of such magic and would be considered the last legacy of what some of us here were blessed enough to have experienced... But... you will never know...………. but I will always remember. [/QUOTE]

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