We better enjoy Waiters this year

[NKR1978]

This is really tangential to the topic at hand, so I apologize, but college is supposed to educate. Professional schools and graduate studies are supposed to prepare you for your career. The growth of the soft sciences and phony undergraduate courses of study has muddied this distinction.

Coincidentally, this is something that should be beneficial to short-term collegiate athletes - if they're not in it for the degree, why not load up on liberal arts courses while they're in school? Get a sampling of what's offered in college, get what education you can, and leave when an employment opportunity presents itself. Beats the heck out of taking credits toward a major that offers little intellectual nourishment in preparation for a career you'll never have.

I don't disagree with anything you said. I was trying to get at the fact that if Dion is ready for the NBA this year, then Syracuse did its job.

I think we have agreed in the past that colleges should do more to prepare elite athletes by offering courses for money management, life skills, etc. I don't know that I'm ready to say that high level athletes should be able to major in basketball (i.e. playing, coaching, courses at Newhouse for how to conduct both sides of an interview, proper use of social media, studio analysis - look what Newhouse has done for Shaq!, etc.), but Syracuse as a university is uniquely situated to appeal to elite football and basketball recruits. You would have to find guys that are far-sighted enough to think beyond their NBA/NFL careers to consider the long haul, but Newhouse is an invaluable resource that the athletic department should find a way to utilize more

And talk about being tangential to the topic at hand...

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

HA,you named 5 guys that have made it,What about the hundreds/thousands whom didn't?

So what. What about guys who don't play ball and who don't go to college? What about guys who wash out of minor league baseball, hockey, the Tour school, the satellite tour in tennis? Why does no one care about them? Because it does not impact their favorite college team.
Not everyone is college material. Not everyone cares if they have a degree. Having a degree does not mean you are smart. A college degree is not the end all and be all. ALSO, WHO SAYS THEY CAN'T GO BACK TO COLLEGE WHEN THEY ARE DONE PLAYING!!!! Nobody EVER answers that question.
If my children had a unique talent, I would seriously question wheter they should go to college. My cousin left college after one year. He is now anVERY succesful financial advisor, with clients all over the country. He only deals in high net worth clients. Should he have stayed. Friend of my parents, Warton School of Business graduate, former Air Force pilot, struggled all his life just to make ends meet. He had a degree from a GREAT school.
Heck, learning and working a trade can be a great life.
I bet Bill Gates and Paul Allen wished they had stayed in college.
By the way, only the US pimps the sports kids to college before they can go pro. By the way, that is only done in the sports that are dominated by African American athletes. Enough said.

 

[dollarbill44]

I don't disagree with anything you said. I was trying to get at the fact that if Dion is ready for the NBA this year, then Syracuse did its job.

I think we have agreed in the past that colleges should do more to prepare elite athletes by offering courses for money management, life skills, etc. I don't know that I'm ready to say that high level athletes should be able to major in basketball (i.e. playing, coaching, courses at Newhouse for how to conduct both sides of an interview, proper use of social media, studio analysis - look what Newhouse has done for Shaq!, etc.), but Syracuse as a university is uniquely situated to appeal to elite football and basketball recruits. You would have to find guys that are far-sighted enough to think beyond their NBA/NFL careers to consider the long haul, but Newhouse is an invaluable resource that the athletic department should find a way to utilize more

And talk about being tangential to the topic at hand...

Why not create a "sports career management for athletes" major that incorporates personal finance, general math, introductory contractual law, public relations, economics, etc, plus the Newhouse type classes noted above? I'm sure you could find enough worthwhile "real life" type classes for athletes to cobble together a decent program. Maybe even offer an accelerated 3-year program.

 

[Knicks411]

Why not create a "sports career management for athletes" major that incorporates personal finance, general math, introductory contractual law, public relations, economics, etc, plus the Newhouse type classes noted above? I'm sure you could find enough worthwhile "real life" type classes for athletes to cobble together a decent program. Maybe even offer an accelerated 3-year program.

I think Jay Bilas has suggested this as well.

 

[moqui]

He's been showing playmaker skills all year long Ex: 7 assists against Marquette

Kid is a pure scorer with great vision and also a good defender.

he has good vision and has been passing the ball well in certain situations, but that doesn't make him an NBA point guard. He's a scoring guard who can also pass, that doesn't make him a playmaker. And the jury is definitely out on his defense. With the sole exception of Jason Hart, Syracuse guards do not defend well at the NBA level.

I know he will get a shot and I hope he sticks, I just don't see it. As always, I hope I am wrong.

 

[pfister1]

These arguments always seem to neglect the fact that a degree isn't a free pass to anything. There are plenty of people who have a college degree and can't do anything with it.

They also neglect to acknowledge that not having a degree isn't an absolute bar to success in life, even financial success. There are plenty of very very successful small business owners with no formal college training. There are even a decent number of examples of big business owners who were college dropouts...Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Wally "Famous" Amos, Tom Anderson (MySpace), James Cameron, Sean Combs, Simon Cowell, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, David Geffen, Jay-Z, Marc Zuckerberg and my personal favorite Danni Ashe - that's not even getting into those that are just successful entertainers of one sort or another.

Granted its generally better to have a college degree than not, but most of us don't have a particular talent or idea that might trump the value of that degree. There are countless examples of people who have made it big because they chased their dream instead of slogging ahead with the masses to get that degree.

 

[Daleman]

he has good vision and has been passing the ball well in certain situations, but that doesn't make him an NBA point guard. He's a scoring guard who can also pass, that doesn't make him a playmaker. And the jury is definitely out on his defense. With the sole exception of Jason Hart, Syracuse guards do not defend well at the NBA level.

I know he will get a shot and I hope he sticks, I just don't see it. As always, I hope I am wrong.

Okay all I'm really saying is that he has an NBA skill set and the wide open game up there makes it even more attractive for someone like Dion. I just think as fans we get jealous and want to keep these players here longer than they should be. Let's be honest his family probably needs the money. I'm probably a little biased because I'm a Knicks fan but I could easily see him excelling on a team like the Knicks right now. I see him doing the same things in the NBA that he does at Syracuse (coming off the bench as a third guard that focuses on scoring buckets for the second team). I really do view him as a poor man's Dwyane Wade without a jump shot (which is easily the easiest thing to work on Ex: Derrick Rose).

 

[Niastri]

The best argument I have heard on this topic is a pair of rhetorical questions:

If you were to win the lottery and take a five million dollar prize, would you quit your job?

If you would quit your job, why would you ask somebody else to stay in a course of study that was completely irrelevant to the rest of their life, given the same circumstance?

Any nba first rounder gets guaranteed millions. Lottery picks get just that much more.

 

[Daleman]

Every non big man in the NBA is a "pure scorer" - whatever that means. I'm not sure what great vision gets you without great ball skills. As for being a good defender, that was part of my point that he is good at everything but not great yet at anything tangible. My advice would be to stick around one more year and focus on becoming great at either ball-handling or shooting. It's just my opinion though, so it really means nothing. I thought JFLynn should have stuck around for another year too, because I didn't think he was a high first round talent after his soph year. The NBA has very little patience if you are under 7' tall.

Well it looks like you were wrong because Jonny went #6 overall lol. But seriously not every non-big man in the NBA is a pure scorer. There are passers, defenders, etc. I think that Dion is actually great at just driving to the hoop and finishing with contact.

 

[moqui]

If you were to win the lottery and take a five million dollar prize, would you quit your job?

I would quit my job and go back to school

 

[dollarbill44]

Well it looks like you were wrong because Jonny went #6 overall lol. But seriously not every non-big man in the NBA is a pure scorer. There are passers, defenders, etc. I think that Dion is actually great at just driving to the hoop and finishing with contact.

He was a 1st round pick, but he hasn't been a 1st round talent. Paul Harris was good at driving to the hoop and finishing with contact - in college. It doesn't always translate to being able to do it in the NBA. If he gets drafted high and makes a ton of $$$, great for him and he made the right choice. I just think that too many kids take the quick payday now and in 2-3 years, they are flushed out because their teams couldn't wait around for them to polish up their game to the point it would have been had they spent 2 years more in college and then had a much longer NBA career. It's hard to say no to the money, but sometimes you could make a LOT more of it with just a little bit of patience.

 

[bnoro]

So, anyone with "just" a liberal arts degree from SU is now bound to be jobless and homeless and die on the streets?

For the record, I am in the camp of going pro as soon as you are guaranteed a 1st round selection, but your scenario was just absurd.

It was meant to be absurd to prove a point. Dion could take a liberal arts degree and make a million dollars. It was to prove a point. Also, Liberal Arts majors are the ones struggling the most right now with finding jobs so it was a suitable example.

 

[Daleman]

He was a 1st round pick, but he hasn't been a 1st round talent. Paul Harris was good at driving to the hoop and finishing with contact - in college. It doesn't always translate to being able to do it in the NBA. If he gets drafted high and makes a ton of $$$, great for him and he made the right choice. I just think that too many kids take the quick payday now and in 2-3 years, they are flushed out because their teams couldn't wait around for them to polish up their game to the point it would have been had they spent 2 years more in college and then had a much longer NBA career. It's hard to say no to the money, but sometimes you could make a LOT more of it with just a little bit of patience.

I agree with the Flynn evaluation but you have to admit that his hip injury has had a really bad effect on his career early on. And the Paul Harris comparison isn't fair because Paul was a 6"5 forward---very tough to make in the NBA at that height with his skill set.