School Of Hard Knocks

Jeremy Tyler, a California area High School junior, recently announced recently that he would forgoe his senior year of high school to turn pro and play in Europe, presumably for two years, before entering the NBA Draft (per the NBA’s age-limit policy- gotta be 19 to get in).

Brandon Jennings took a similar path last year- albeit after graduating from high school- by turning pro to play for Lottomatica Virtus Roma in Italy.  So Tyler will ostensibly be seen as either a groundbreaking trailblazer who paved the way for more youngsters to make bold moves against the grain, or a dumb kid who “messed up his life” by making a bad decision as a young man.

My issue is one that has been voiced many times over by our Afro-American leaders (and also many non-Blacks), many times over as far back as Kevin Garnett’s entry into the NBA Draft fresh off his high school prom in 1995: Why such an uproar only when the Black athlete ditches the accepted path to pursue a profession in sports?

Prodigies in tennis , golf, hockey and baseball leave school at ages ranging from 11 to 17, for a life of 5-hour practices and traveling tournament teams. High school players are drafted by MLB and the NHL every year and hardly a peep is spoken. So why is it, then, that NBA commissioner David Stern enacted the age limit to prevent young (mostly) Black men from making a living? And why is there talk of actually increasing the age limit?

Young basketball players are exploited by the NCAA year after year, as coaches cash in on million dollar contracts and schools rake in ticket and merchandise sale receipts. And oh, yeah, the “student athlete” receives a full ride scholarship for his efforts. Nothing to sneeze at, but let’s do the math. Four years’ tuition, room and board is worth roughly $56k-128k (NCAA estimate). Louisville’s Rick Pitino’s contract is worth between $1.65 and $2.5 million. A year. So we know the money is there. The NCAA is raking in money off the player’s backs in both basketball and football (their top “revenue sports”), and the NCAA also enacts some very strict rules which severely limit an athlete’s freedoms once a scholarship is officially accepted.

The NCAA expert talking heads at ESPN (ahem, Jay Bilas and Doug Gottlieb) have, expectantly, trashed the moves of the aforementioned kids in favor of athletes taking their talents to the NCAA. This is to be expected; ESPN has a huge broadcasting deal with the NCAA and zero European pro basketball games on TV. Aside from that, it is also easy for one to predict failure for an individual going against the odds. If I take a trip to Vegas and you predict that I’ll lose money, is there any “expert analysis” required for that? Not really. And smart money says you’ll be correct.

It appears that there are still a lot of people in America that have a deep-seeded issue with young Blacks stepping outside of the limits set for them by society and taking some power for themselves. We saw it in the 90s with the burgeoning popularity (and profitability) of Hip-Hop, and the same issue rears its head every time  a young Black man decides to dribble a basketball for money at 18. But when that 18-year-old’s HS classmate decides to go carry a gun in Iraq at 18, he’s a hero. Even though neither establishment- the NCAA nor the US Government- will be around to help out if either venture doesn’t go so well (which is a whole ‘nother blog post). So what’s the difference?

So I’m proud of athletes who decide to buck the system, say “No, Thank you” to being exploited for 1-4 years, and take the power into their own hands. KG did it. Kobe did it. LeBron James Did it. Brandon Jennings is doing it. Jeremy Tyler has taken the power into his own hands, and whether he ends up an NBA star or not, he will do it having answered to nobody but himself, the manifest destiny. And that is what taking charge of one’s life is all about. Right?

Tags: Basketball, business, College, government, military