Like many of you, I
have been watching a lot of college basketball over the last week and a half.
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is one of the most exciting
events in sports. The single elimination format creates an atmosphere that is
thrilling and creates games as teams do everything they can to win. The opening
weekend is one of my favorite things in the whole sports world.
Over the last few
years the tournament has been filled with super talented freshmen who jump to
the NBA as soon as their college team loses. You can't help but hear about
these one and doners. The phenomena has become so wide spread that it is
driving many commenters to call it a crisis and decry the degrading character
of our nation's youth. This is an overreaction rooted in selfishness. In a free
and capitalist society, like ours, adults should be allowed to seek employment
in their chosen profession as soon as they are eligible.
The phenomena of
young talent basketball players hanging out at a university for a year before
bolting to the NBA was created by the
NBA's adoption of an age restriction on entering the NBA draft in 2006. This
rule was created in part to protect NBA teams from themselves and their habit
of drafting high school players with high potential who turned bust in the
pros. It was also created to help funnel talent into the NCAA and keep college
basketball alive. There was a fear back at the beginning of the millennium that
so many high school players were jumping straight to the NBA that fans would
stop watching the college game because it lacked the stars it used to have.
The NBA age
restriction did force NBA teams to stop drafting unready high school seniors.
Although it didn't stop NBA teams from drafting unready college freshmen.
Although it failed to change the flow of the best prospects skipping out on
college basketball and heading to the NBA. Instead it deferred the problem by a
year and created the current one and done situation. The NBA and NCAA traded
having the best players skip college altogether to instead having them spend
four months playing for some team. College basketball still loses their
brightest stars before they reach their potential, but now they lack the
consistency and familiarity that teams and fans get with three and four year
players.
The United States is
supposed to be a cultural and economic system based on capitalism, the free
market, and the ability of anyone to get ahead with hard work. We can argue a
different time if this really happens or if it has ever happened, but it is the
supposed dream. The NBA and NCAA system of forcing players to wait a year after
they graduate from high school before they are allowed to play professionally
at the highest level is a stark violation of those principles. Instead of
letting the best rise to the top we suppress them for the benefit of the rich
and powerful, in this case the NCAA. If an NBA team wants to pay them to play
basketball these young men should be allowed accept the offer. There is no
legitimate reason to limit their eligibility.
Some say that a
solution to the supposed one and done problem is to adopt a system similar to
NCAA baseball and MLB. In this system players are allowed to turn pro right out
of high school. However, if they decide to play collegiately they have to play
for three years before they can turn pro. The system provide young talented
athletes with a way to get paid to play right out of high school. It also
allows people who aren't interested in or aren't able to pursue academic
studies to skip college and enter into their chosen profession. At the same
time it protects college teams by guaranteeing them at least three years of a
players service thereby allowing the team to develop and maintain chemistry.
At first glance the
baseball system seems like a good one. It seems to be a fair compromise. The
players, colleges, and MLB all appear to get what they want. But, upon further
review and thought it become clear this system is still flawed. Players who break
out during their freshman or sophomore years are forced to wait before they can
offer their talent on the market. They are forced to accept the risk of injury
all because of a decision they made when they were 18 years old. The baseball system still denies this young
mean their economic right to pursue employment in their chosen profession.
Fans often bemoan
their favorite team's best players leaving after one year. They talk about how
the players would be better off staying and developing. How they would make a
name for themselves and develop a legacy at the institution. These arguments are
rooted in selfishness. I doubt very these fans, if they were truly honest with
themselves, would turn down millions of dollars tomorrow just so they are
remembered ore fondly at a school they barely attended. The fans make these
arguments to try and justify their valuing of their team's athletic success
over a young man's economic future. They are truly caring about themselves and
not the athlete.
The NBA age
restriction is an unfair and unneeded rule that hampers the free market and
suppresses individuals rights. The one and done crisis is not a problem with
the young men of American basketball. The common arguments against one and done
have their foundations in the self-interest of the fans, not the players. The
real problem is players being forced into a charade of picking a school and
pretending to care about academics while missing out on a year of their prime
earning potential.
