10 Sports Things That Piss Me Off...

[Guest DrEvil]

I see your point, I ran into Tracy McGrady one night during his first year in Toronto.  He was staying at an $x-hundred / night hotel, tipped the valet who brought his $100K BMW $100, and was wearing enough jewellery to finance a house.  He's one of the lucky ones, he was in an organization that took the time to set him straight, and he had the talent to make it big.

 

 

College may better prepare you for the game and the lifestyle, but there's no guarantee of that.  Given a choice of a degree to fall back on, or millions of dollars to fall back on, I'd choose the latter.  If you fail to live up to your billing after going pro, at least you have the finances you need to get on with your life.

 

Another point is that if someone fucks up in the pros, whose to say he wouldn't have fucked up in college.  And if you screw your college career, then you're left with nothing, no degree, and no money.  You can point out hundreds of cases of young guys going pro and then screwing up, but it doesn't mean that it was the pro league that did it to them.  Some of them are an accident looking for a place to happen, the pros just gave them a bigger vehicle for that accident.

 

I think that the organizations that draft these high schoolers should have some kind of safeguards in place to guide and help them.  It is really in their own best interests to protect their investment.

[Guest Ripper]

"Sure, these kids are getting guaranteed contracts for three years. But if you're out of the league after that, what are you going to do? Yeah, you can go back to college, but how many do? Most were only in college to go pro! And I know there's been a few people go back to college after the pros, but I can't think of any"

 

But seriously, why go.  Should Bill Gates go back to college?? You go to college to find your career.. If you career is basketball, why do you even need a college degree.  Thats like saying that people that don't go to college aren't going to lead happy and sucessful lives.  College isn't that important.  

 

"Dontonio Wingfield went pro early. Where is he now? He was arrested a few times. His mother had him arrested. He's not a success in the slightest."

 

So are you saying that if he had stayed in college he would have become a stand-up young man.  A fuck-up with that went to college is just a fuck-up with a degree.  

 

How 'bout Kareem Rush's brother, JaRon? Going pro early was his best decision, huh?

 

D.A. Layne? Who?

 

They got to be rich if only for a moment.  Then they had to go live normal lives.  I say it still beats never being rich, making a college program rich and just going on living the normal life.

 

"And I'm not going to say that all that leave early are like this, but there's a lot of immaturity. You have 20-year-olds with millions of dollars and they have no idea on how to use it."

 

And college would teach you that?? Are you saying there aren't any 4 year college players that went broke a couple of years after playing ball?  By the numbers most of the guys that have skipped college ball have turned out to be sucess.  

 

"Just last week in Sports Illustrated, they profiled a Broncos cornerback who had just filed for bankruptcy. SI listed some of his debts. They were ludicrous! $32,000 just for limo charges!"

 

You want to bet that he graduated from college.  I willing to believe that he did.

 

"College brings maturity! I'm miles away from where I was in high school. And it was after 2-3 years after entering college."

 

Well thats great for you, but for the most part, it doesn't bring maturity.  All it was for me was alot more sex, and if I did them, more readily available drugs and alcohol.  Basically, college is the NBA life without all the money!!  How is that environment better for a kid?

 

"Yes, there are some players that don't have senior years as good as their previous years. But there's players that have even better senior years. I think that's definately the case for Juan Dixon and Jason Williams, just like it was the case for Shane Battier and others."

 

But what about all the rest of them.  They don't have a chance at any career were if they had left earilier they would have had a 6-7 figure salary, now what do they have. Can you truely say that "Well at least they have a college degree."

 

"I saw a comment recently from a scout addressing these players leaving early. He compared them to Battier. He said that these kids are going to spend several years on the bench and not contribute. Battier's going to immediately contribute because he's readied himself. And Battier has. Compare his numbers to the big names - Kwame Brown, Forte, Curry, Chandler."

 

Yeah, but that exact same scout know how much better the highschool to NBA players perform.  Out of all the top players in the league today, only Tim Duncan and Ray Allen played out thier college career.  I know that every scout in the league knows this.   They don't want to say it but they know its true.   The highschoolers that are coming in the league are learning to play the game from the best in the world.  In college they are learning from the best that the school could get to sign there or best that their division can offer.  

 

And in the end, who cares if they give horrible performaces in the league, they usually means that they would have sucked and at least they  now have some money.

[Guest Redhawk]

So the Yankees don't build championships? Where did Alfonso Soriano come from? How about Andy Pettitte? Bernie Williams? Derek Jeter? El Duque? They all came from the Yankees farm system.

 

And still, even teams who do use people from their farm system are still buying championships. They have to pay those guys, correct? And they drafted them, they didn't necessarily go out and find them off the sandlot. They just got a high enough draft pick and got them before anyone else did. If you pay players, you are trying to buy championships. Bottom line.

[Guest What?!]

I also don't like people criticizing players who leave (or skip) college early for the NBA.

 

I mean, it's not like these players are banned from attending college the rest of their life. They just can't play college basketball. Plus, not everyone is cut out for college life anyways. If some top high schooler doesn't have the grades to get a scholarship, why not jump to the NBA.

 

Plus, there's always Europe.

[Guest]

I also don't like people criticizing players who leave (or skip) college early for the NBA.

 

I mean, it's not like these players are banned from attending college the rest of their life. They just can't play college basketball. Plus, not everyone is cut out for college life anyways. If some top high schooler doesn't have the grades to get a scholarship, why not jump to the NBA.

 

Plus, there's always Europe.

No, these players aren't banned from ever going back to college, but how many do?

 

I think I'd be a little better in my opinion if the NBA had a suitable minor league. The NBDL doesn't cut it. It's small and it's a single level; a single league.

 

And that's the difference between baseball and other sports. Only 13 players have ever jumped immediately to the pros without playing a single minor league game.

 

I'll go ahead and put out the disclaimer that yes, I realize that this isn't 100% true:

 

The minor leagues give these players a chance to grow up. You go on the road, away from mama and daddy. You're not getting a great salary, some expenses are covered, but you do have to budget. Your life isn't glamorous. Most players work for years to get where they are.

 

Going back to the NBA, I'll use Jarad Jeffries as an example.

 

It pretty much looks like Jeffries is going pro. I think he could use time in a farm system. He's unpolished, he's scrawny, and he's inconsistent. A farm system would allow him to develop properly and maximize his longevity in the NBA.

 

Since the NBA only has the tiny NBDL (and, of course, didn't until recently), colleges are the best way to go. It gives players a chance to land a better job if he doesn't make it in the NBA.

 

In the case that basketball is the profession of this young man and he fails at the NBA level, college gives him a chance to continue his love. The player could get into coaching. Teaching certification tacked onto a whole bunch of majors (including physical education) would give this player a start. Very, very rarely has a school system employed a coach without a degree, so college would be his best route.

 

(*Disclaimers: The Jeffries example is based solely on his playing ability. The college coaching/teaching paragraph is merely a suggestion.)

[Guest Ripper]

Yeah, but I am willing to bet that most of those guys that fail after a couple of years in the league DO go back to college so they can lead a life...its not like they can't afford it then.  The guy that are sucessful in the league don't need to go back.

[Guest]

The highschoolers that are coming in the league are learning to play the game from the best in the world.  In college they are learning from the best that the school could get to sign there or best that their division can offer.  

But when those college players get to the pros they will learn from the best the world has too.

[Guest Ripper]

Yeah, but the Highschoolers will then have 4 years on them and are usually better players.  You have to relearn the game when coming from college to the pros.  Everyone says that Battier was contributing right off, but look at the team he was on.  Rodney Buford looked like a freakin allstar there.  

 

I understand where alot of people are coming from but I still say if you have a chance to be in the NBA, screw playing for some college so the can get money off you for free(trust me, they don't care about these guys future, they just want to win a division championship and get that bonus).