Hoop Dreams Deferred?

By Jamilah King and Tomas Palermo, July 25, 2008

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Should high school hoopsters skip college and graduate to the NBA? Two WireTap editors debate the issue one-on-one.

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In a recent New America Media article titled "Top Pro Basketball Prospect Tests European Waters," reporter Donal Brown argues that college may not be the best choice for top prep basketball players.

The article cites Oak Hill Academy-New Jersey star Brandon Jennings as an athlete too gifted to waste a year in college before going pro. Brown makes a strong case that youths like Jennings should be able to pursue employment in their given field immediately. The article sparked some debate between WireTap's two resident hoops enthusiasts, Associate Editor Jamilah King and Managing Editor Tomas Palermo.

King was starting varsity point guard on her San Francisco high school team and continues to follow the game. Palermo played guard in junior high and is currently a high school cross country and track coach at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco, where the women's basketball team was ranked number one in the US in 2008.

Below is an excerpt from Brown's article and WireTap's analysis. Our arguments are framed with the mag's focuses in mind: Youth economic empowerment, activism, equal labor rights and racial justice. This is our take; We invite you to sound off on the message board and give us yours.

Article Excerpt:

SAN FRANCISCO - A highly regarded point guard from Los Angeles, who signed with Arizona, has opted to play in a European professional league next year, creating much anxiety among college coaches.

Under National Basketball Association rules, the player, Brandon Jennings, who just graduated from high school, will not be eligible for the draft until after his freshman year in college. So Jennings is foregoing the year at Arizona to play for one year in Europe, before entering the NBA draft in 2009.

In Europe, Jennings will earn at least $300,000. This establishes a welcome precedent and alternative to the charade of the NCAA "student athlete."

For a player of Jennings' capabilities, college may not be the best choice. As a premier athlete he would have generated close to $1 million revenue for Arizona during his freshman year. But would he have been compensated in kind?

Read the rest here.

WireTap Editors Sound Off:

Jamilah King, Associate Editor: Let Them Play

For years, I was opposed to high school players making the jump to the NBA, and welcomed rules that prohibited players from doing so. After graduating from college, my position did a 180 degree turn. Why? I thought high school players should be given the opportunity to pursue a job opportunity to play in the NBA just like any other profession. It's common in other sports for younger players -- some as young as 12 and 13 years old -- to make the leap to the pros. Granted, in sports like tennis and baseball, there's a much longer process (developmental leagues for baseball; individual coaching in others). I also felt most of the arguments in favor of age limits were highly racialized, since almost all high school players entering the league were young black men.

I also grappled with the myth of the "sanctity of college basketball." If you've got hordes of talented college players leaving after their first year, what does that do to the longevity of collegiate programs? Yes, players are experiencing the emotional growth that takes place in college, but only for a year. How useful is this in the long run?

And then I took a look at last year's college games. Almost all the top players were freshmen who a few years ago would've opted for the NBA. After one year of college ball, most did. But they had a year to live up to their hype, or stay in school to improve their game and mature emotionally.

The OJ Mayo scandal brought to light that there's no such thing as the sanctity of college or the college game since sports are big business and many athletes are routinely recruited by professional agents as early as middle school. Just how much growth college players should be allowed outside of sports major Division 1 is up for debate, but one year doesn't significantly alter the professional options available to them.

So, after some thought, I'm in favor of a mandatory year in college. For every Kobe Bryant and LeBron James (the NBA's most famous high schooler-gone-pro), there are ten Kwame Brown's. I think it's good for the college game, the pros and the individual. That said, I still believe that there's a thin line between professional sports and major Div. 1 programs. They're both multi-billion dollar institutions. The main difference is that colleges profit from the (officially) unpaid labor of young folks.

Tomas Palermo Managing Editor: College Experience Worth The Wait

I was happy to see Donal Brown discuss the practical reasons behind the NBA's one-year-of-college policy. I also agree with Brown that for some athletes, college is a charade -- particularly when it comes to academics.

Another argument I hear lately is that the NBA is increasingly a "young man's" league. Injuries are common and competition for playing time is fierce. Therefore, a talented athlete should be allowed to make as much money as possible while they're young and healthy. That's understandable since the window for maximizing both commercial endorsements and playing time is when athletes are between 19 and 25 years old. That's a tiny time frame. By 30, most players are contemplating retirement, coaching or anchoring for ESPN.

However, I disagree with some of the article's ideas about the rewards of professional sports.

For one, I think it's wrong to assume that college is solely an academic experience. My view is that the real value of college life is found in its many social and emotional experiences. Individuals have a relatively safe, stable environment to learn self-sufficiency, manage school and personal deadlines, develop new relationships and find a balance between work and fun. Ultimately, college is socio-emotional development with career training (i.e. a major) thrown in. Can an athlete really experience a similar multi-dimensional lifestyle and development traveling on the road with a team half the year?

Additionally, college students are exposed to diverse world views and perspectives at precisely the time developmentally that they can process complex metacognitive information. Although athletes who go pro in Europe or the NBA may be exposed to new cultures, these life experiences and languages occur during a static, year-round playing schedule. Boooooring.

Life in the pro league consists of practice, eat, play, eat, sleep. There's not much in the way of social/life-skills coaching going on. By contrast, a college coach must make sure their best prospects play and stay healthy. Brains and bodies are still rapidly developing between ages 18 and 21, so a good coach not only teaches their sport, but also nutrition, time management and social skills.

College coaches often plug athletes into their personal networks, introducing players to potential careers and contacts they'll use long after NBA careers have faded. The social bond is important in the college setting. College coaches manage their players' emotional well-being, are informal counselors and mentors. College coaches help transform young boys into men. Pro coaches can only discipline and suspend.

I also don't buy the money argument. I don't believe most fresh-out-of-high-school students know how to handle a $300,000 contract. Sure, a small percentage do, or have their agents, handlers or parents take care of their finances. On the other hand, after a few too many Top Ramen dinners, most college students quickly gain a real appreciation for how to manage their personal funds.

Finally, there's been a rise in arrests and incidents with young American players in Europe and abroad in typical Vegas-like situations -- bar fights, strip clubs, etc. These things probably happen in college, too, but without the severe financial and legal consequences.

Lastly, sending high school graduates straight to the pros diminishes the value of long-term learning commitments. Higher education takes time, and society shouldn't have lower expectations for urban youth when it comes to the academic and personal development college success requires. Ultimately, I want see more urban youth of color succeed in high school and go to college to enjoy all the experiences in that accelerated growth period -- academic, athletic, social, psychological -- and emerge ready to face the world's many challenges.

Jamilah King is WireTap's Associate Editor. Tomas Palermo is WireTap's Managing Editor.