Prep players bypassing college is a good thing for NCAA game

Deseret News columnist Doug Robinson wonders if top high school players skipping college to join the G League could be “the perfect remedy for many of the game’s ills.” | Associated Press

Many writers around the country, including this one, have wondered if college basketball was doomed by an increasing number of top high school players who were choosing to skip college to join the G League to prepare for the NBA draft.

This would affect the quality of the game, it was reasoned, and rob it of marquee players, not to mention millions of dollars they would bring to the money-grubbing NCAA.

But is this really a problem? Is it really a bad thing that these players are skipping school to go to the pros?

No. It’s actually the perfect remedy for many of the game’s ills.

For 15 years, the NBA has required players to be at least one year removed from high school before they were eligible for the draft. This was supposed to prevent them from joining the league before they were physically and emotionally mature enough to handle it. And so began the one-and-done era — players playing one year and then leaving college for the draft.

In recent years players have, with increasing frequency, taken another path to the draft. In a March 5 column I recited a long list of players who had chosen to serve their one-year “apprenticeship” for the draft in the NBA’s G League (a developmental league) or in the European pro leagues, rather than go to college.

Since then, a number of other top players have chosen this alternative route, including three who are ranked among the top 15 players in the country. Jalen Green, a 6-foot-6 point guard from Fresno, California, who is widely ranked as the top prep player in the country, “decommitted” from Memphis State to join the G League. Likewise, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix “decommitted” from Michigan and UCLA, respectively, to join the G League.

For high school players, there are clear advantages in turning pro immediately. Instead of having to go to class per NCAA rules and live paycheck to paycheck under the NCAA’s antiquated amateur rules, they can be paid while they are preparing for the draft (Green reportedly will be paid $500,000 for a year in the G League).

Meanwhile, the NBA seems to be going out of its way to spoil an unofficial cooperative relationship with the NCAA, which has served as a free minor league system for the league. The NBA says it will soon allow high school players to be eligible for the draft immediately, denying universities the benefits of having top players on their teams even if only for a year. NCAA officials can take much of the blame for this upheaval because they created a system that prevented a player from owning even his own image in perpetuity and used athletes to earn billions while denying them a free pizza from a coach.

But there’s no need to fret about the loss of elite players to the G League. That’s exactly where they should be. It opens up roster spots for true student-athletes who are looking for an education and a college athletic experience. Let the G Leaguers, many of which were only going through the motions when they went to class, focus on the game in the minor leagues, as most baseball players do.

There are other benefits, as well. It means less corruption and less temptation for scandal and cheating. The current system has created a whole secret world of shady characters who are funding star college players under the table hoping to score big when the player signs a multimillion-dollar NBA contract (see Adidas scandal). If those same players go to the G League immediately out of high school, they can be paid legitimately by their teams, thus eliminating the basketball underground.

But, you ask, aren’t these athletes passing up a free education if they don’t make it in the NBA? They weren’t at State U. for school anyway, and if they ever decide that education is important to them, they can use the money they earn in the G League to pay for a college education.

Other side benefits:

• We end the silly one-and-done business.

• College coaches have to develop talent and actually coach instead of bringing in fully developed players who are simply biding their time waiting for the draft.

It’s relevant to note that Europeans don’t have an elite athletic system that’s tied to schools. They have a club system and athletes pay to belong to the clubs for training and competition. European universities haven’t lost their way paying hundreds of millions of dollars to field sports teams, and athletes who want to pursue sports can do so via the clubs. That’s what is happening on a much smaller scale in America, with elite high school players opting for professional club teams.

It’s better for everybody.

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