Wheeler: New rules needed to avoid ‘minor leagues’ label

NBA should fall in line with NFL and MLB rules

The Beach Boys help explain the current NBA policy.

By Bryan Wheeler (Contact)

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

With this year’s NBA draft less than two months away, 51 underclassmen at colleges across the country have declared intentions to go pro. Since the National Basketball Association made it a rule in 2006 that a player must be 19 years of age and one year removed from high school to enter the draft, college basketball has seen a drastic change in its landscape.

The result of this rule is that college basketball, at many schools, has turned into minor league basketball. Players such as this year’s NBA Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant and Kansas State freshman Michael Beasley have been delayed from going pro because of the two-year-old regulation. If not for the rule, Durant would have likely won NBA Rookie of the Year last year, and Beasley would have won it this year.

The NBA policy can be best summed up by the Beach Boys song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older/ Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long/ And wouldn’t it be nice to live together/ In the kind of world where we belong.”

Ironically, freshman Kevin Love of UCLA is a cousin of Brian Wilson and a nephew of Mike Love, who sang on the 1966 hit single. Kevin Love is one of the 12 freshmen who have declared early entry for the draft and will likely be a lottery pick.

Until something is done to change the current draft rules in place, universities across the nation will play host to future NBA stars for a year or two before the players punch their time cards and go pro. In a sense, NCAA basketball is turning into a minor league system for the NBA.

High school basketball stars play at a college of their choice for a year while professional scouts get a chance to evaluate them. After each season is finished, NBA teams can evaluate a player even more. If the player is good enough to make it to the big leagues, he will leave. If not, he will spend another year down in “the minors.”

Unlike the NFL and MLB, the only party benefitting from the rule is the NBA. In the National Football League, a player must be three years removed from high school. In Major League Baseball, a player from a four-year college must have completed at least his junior year. By requiring a player to spend a few years in college, the incentive to graduate is much greater.

In the current state of college basketball, universities are leasing players who should go pro. The players don’t like it, the fans hate it when their star decides to bolt to the NBA after a year, and the notion that players are student-athletes is becoming a joke.

In an interview with the Associated Press in mid-March about Beasley’s decision to turn pro, Kansas State coach Frank Martin indirectly summed up what this rule has done for college basketball.

“He’s got to make sure that he does what’s right for him and for his family. That’s what my advice will come from,” Martin said. “Not what’s best for Kansas State, not what’s best for John Doe. It’s what’s best for Michael Beasley. He’s got to do what’s best for him.”

The decision for Beasley was obvious. Martin is right by saying not to worry about the school, the team or the fans, but this process is undermining the whole concept of college athletics. Just to give you an idea just how right it was for Beasley to look out for himself, former Texas star Kevin Durant made more than $4 million in his rookie season alone. Last time I checked, there aren’t too many jobs a college graduate could start out with a salary like that in their first year, let alone a whole career. Can we really blame these stars for going to the NBA after a year or two?

As of now, NBA commissioner David Stern looks like a genius. He has created a minor league basketball system in just two years at the expense of the NCAA. The NCAA needs to develop a system within college basketball requiring athletes to either go pro after high school or stay in college for at least two years. If the other two major college sports are doing it, why not basketball?

— Edited by Jared Duncan

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