“Is this a part of someone being part of your university as a student-athlete or is it about using college athletics to prepare yourself to be a pro? If it’s the latter, you shouldn’t be there in the first place.” -Mark Emmert
In response to Mark Emmert’s quote, let’s first find the purpose of the one year NCAA rule requirement. We already know the NBA has an agreement with the NCAA forcing them to go to college to play basketball for one season to make colleges billions of dollars each year. The deal has nothing to do with educating 18-19 year old men as most of them who are likely to play in the NBA finish their basketball seasons in March/April, stop going to class and begin to prepare for the NBA draft. Colleges, clothing brands and many others have profited lucratively off of the hard work and sweat of one-and-done college basketball players for many years. Could you imagine Lebron James and Kobe Bryant being forced to attend college?
Lavar Ball is presenting another option to players who want to make it to the NBA but don’t want to go to college. He has started the Junior Basketball Association (JBA) which will offer high school prospects $3,000 to $10,000 a month to play in the league. The goal of the league is to develop players to play in the NBA while allowing them to simultaneously get paid for their talent. We have seen a few top prospects in the past bypass college and play overseas for a season or so and then become high draft pics. The most notable being Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay. Lavar has confirmed that his son LaMelo Ball, who is expected to play in the NBA in a couple of years, will be playing in the JBA. The JBA will be made up of 8 teams with 10 players in major cities in the U.S. including Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.
[caption id="attachment_3683" align="alignright" width="325"]
NBA Players Emmanuel Mudiay in China (left) & Brandon Jennings in Italy (right)[/caption]
Lavar Ball is challenging a billion dollar cash cow in the NCAA and I am here for it. Players should have a choice as to where they play and how they prepare for the NBA. If a player has no expectation of going to college for more than a year, he should be able to make money while soley preparing for the NBA. Why even waste time taking classes that they don’t care about? Also, how about all the kids who don’t even have the grades to get into college. People always tell stories of the kid who was better than Michael Jordan but he couldn’t enroll in college. Well now that proverbial kid today will have his shot. There is a distinct method to what some may call Lavar’s madness. He does have an uphill climb as he will need to lure NBA scouts to his league games and convince top tier talent to forego college where the NCAA already has million dollar television deals in place.
Lavar Ball has launched the website http://jbaleague.com/ and states that the league will launch in the Summer of 2018.]]>
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