This issue is not really an issue that effects the lives of everyone and to some people this is probably not a big deal at all, but if you have ever played in sports game at any level where you are playing a team that is unfairly matched up against you. You think after they are crushing you and the game is obviously out of hand, but they continue to pour it on to the point where you are embarrassed by the onslaught that just took place on the the court. I remember junior league basketball game where there would always be that one team where the coaches son was the star player followed by a handful of other handpicked players to make a team that is just better, faster, taller and stronger than every other team. Playing against this team was degrading and often made you wonder if you even wanted to play again. When you’d look up at the scoreboard and see a score like 20- 70, it would hurt and was embarrassing to walk off the court and have to talk to your parents or your friends about it. Or it would just be really awkward and they would try to not talk about it but that just made it even more awkward and uncomfortable.

Via Stack.com

While being on the losing end of these massacres is always a depressing experience, when you are on the winning end and you are simply outplaying your opponent, what else are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to just give up and stop trying? When the other team just stops trying and is just trying not to run up the score, that to me is almost even more disrespectful. Its like “I know that I’m better than you guys. We do not even have to try in order to beat you guys.” To me, that is even worse. You are there to play the game and play your best and do the best, it would be insulting to be for you to give anything less than your best. If my team won against a team that was out there and wasn’t giving their best, a win would not feel the same and it definitely would not feel as though you won.

Now we see both sides of this argument (in a 15 year old junior league basketball sort of way) we can apply this to college and professional sports where the stage is hundreds of times larger with bug stadiums with flashing lights  and if stadiums that seat 50,000 people wasn’t enough for you, the games are televised for the whole entire world will see. Now imagine the situation that we described above where are you are simply getting destroyed by the opposing team and they are not letting up and continue to to run up the score and just add insult to injury all while millions of people are watching and you’re going to be made fun of by fans and on social media after the game. Imagine losing in such a fashion in front of a audience that is not as comforting and forgiving as our own parents.

Via Twitter

Running up the score is something that I find to be somewhat unsportsmanlike but you sign up to play the game to the best of your ability and that goes for the other team as well. The better team is going to prevail and that is how sports work. That is why yo dedicate so much time training in the gym and on the field, dedicating yourself to a professional sport is done so that you can be the best player so your team can be the best and win games.

Often times in college and professional sports, if you are winning a game by a large margin, you will take out the starting team in order to bring in the back up team. This is done for several reasons such as keeping the starters healthy and preventing injuries for them but also in order to give the backups some real game-time reps. The opposing team will often see this as unsportsmanlike especially when the backup team comes into the game late and continues the domination that was already occurring. Now this I do not find unsportsmanlike at all. Those guys coming off the bench are hungry for those minutes and they have a lot to prove out there while they are all out there fighting for a starting spot.

Overall, I find that running up the score in professional sports can be in sportsmanlike in some cases like in basketball when teams throw down dunks at the end of the game when they are up big where they are obviously just trying to insult the opposing team. But in most cases sports are based on the idea that these athletes are going to go out on the field or the court or whatever and give it everything they have for the whole time they are out there and if that means crushing the other team, you are out there to prove you are better and that is how you do it.

The debate over how much professional athletes should be paid is one that will likely rage on forever. Many people see these pro athletes simply playing a game and somehow they get paid more than doctors who save people’s lives and the president of the United States who runs the entire country. While this often seems the case, many people see the hard work and dedication that these athlete put towards their craft, a work ethic that is comparable to that of a doctor or the president. Both of these sides have valid arguments but ultimately, these athletes are always going to be making ridiculous amounts of money and people will always have strong opinions about it.

Via The Spectator

Although I have a tremendous love for sports, I sit here and look at the contracts that athletes have, making 20 or 30 MILLION dollars a year… a sum of money that is larger than I will likely ever make in my entire lifetime. On top of that, student loans and mortgage payments haunt my future and I am sure I will look at the money those athletes make and see it as even more unfair. Now if we look at some statistics, this situation seems to be even more unfair. The highest paid doctors make just around $500,000 a year and the highest paid astronaut at NASA makes just over $100,000 a year. Both of those are a nice chunk of change but then we take a look at the lowest paid player basketball player on the Chicago Bulls in 2012 made $850,000. Now this player probably never even played in a game. He got paid to sit court side at 82 basketball games a year. Seems unfair by the fact that I am going to work my butt off for the next 40-50 years and I still may or may not be paying back student loans.

Via Odyssey

Now we can sit here and complain about the amount of money that these athletes make all day long, but in the end, we the fans are the ones that dictate how much these athletes make and we continue to increase their salaries constantly. We are the ones that mindlessly hand over 100 plus dollars for a ticket to any professional sports game. We are the ones that empty our pockets on overpriced  licensed hoodies and gear along with the craziest concession prices that are often hard to believe, but that still never stops us. If we stopped buying these overpriced and decided that these things were not worth what they are charging, big sports franchises would have no choice but to ultimately lower their prices which in turn would devalue sports and the amount of money that these professional athletes make.

Now many people completely agree and are fine with the amount of money that athletes make. While people think they are just out there playing a game, their job entitles a lot more and it is hard to put a monetary value on the things they do that are not just playing the game. There is no way to put a price on the inspiration that these athletes provide to children and people and show them that they can achieve their dreams and can even make their job someday something that they love to do and are passionate about.

Another argument for why these athletes should be making this crazy amount of money is that these guys truly put their bodies on the line to provide us entertainment. The surgeries and recoveries and physical therapy plague the lives of many players and end up being a chronic problem for them for the rest of their lives. This money to some people offer up suitable compensation for the risk that these people take simply in order to entertain us. These issues that haunt athletes for the rest of their lives may make it difficult for athletes to find another job after their athletic career. The career of an athlete only last an average that is just around 10 years where the average person can work till they are in their 70’s.

In my opinion, I do not know how much money pro athletes should be paid. Like we said before, there is really no way to value what athletes add to society. Many people think that athletes do not work as hard as they do as they are just playing a game but I know these athletes devote just as much time to their craft as any profession does. What they do is not easy and they make so much money because not just anyone can do what they do. I have a lot of respect for what they do but at the same time, the contracts that are being dealt out today seems crazy, Earning 30 million dollars each year seems ridiculous but who am I to talk when sports are a huge part of my life and I am one of those idiots that drops hundreds of dollars on tickets and merchandise.

Performance Enhancing drugs have been an epidemic throughout professional sports for a long time and while new regulations and new ways to catch athletes who use such substances have been implemented, there is no way to completely stop this issue. Major League Baseball catches dozens of players using these banned drugs every year but it is almost certain that the players who get away with using these drugs far outweigh the amount that get caught. These substances are very popular in baseball because while it is beneficial to be strong in all sports, their is a direct offensive benefit to having massive muscles when you walk up to the plate. The stronger you are, the more homeruns you hit and the further you can hit the ball. Because of this obvious benefit to using these drugs, many players use them and while the number of players who use them have gone down significantly (well at least that we know of), there was once no ban on the use of these drugs was not banned and they were everywhere.

Via The Open News

While there is no definitive start or end time to the “steroid era” in professional baseball, it usually references the time between the early 80’s and the early 2000’s. During the 1980’s, performance enhancing drugs were coming on to the scene and being popularized and until 1991 the MLB did very little to try and prevent this. Steroids were banned in 1991 and even though they were considered to be banned substances, the MLB did not implement a league wide testing system until 2003 meaning that there was really no way to catch players if they chose to use these drugs. People did not realize how widespread the use of these drugs were in the league until they begun getting caught and it started to come into the light. People I suppose thought it was magic that suddenly players were breaking records that had stood for decades and continued to break these records each year. It was like overnight everyone had gotten magically gotten stronger and that is pretty much what actually happened. Between 1961 and 1994 only 3 players had reached the 50 homerun mark in a single season, then starting in the mid 1990’s many players started to easily surpass this milestone. Continuing into the late 1990’s, the single season homerun record seemed to be broken yearly after both Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire broke the 37 tear old record both in the same year.  Three years later in 2001, the record was again broken by Barry Bonds who racked up an unprecedented 73 homeruns in a single season.

While this new incredible increase in offensive output wowed fans and increase the popularity of the game once again, each of these players have been linked to the usage of performance enhancing drugs. The 500 homerun club was once regarded as a tremendous accomplishment for players but is now earning new members what seems like each and every year and no longer carries the same prestige. Many of the best players in history have been linked to the usage of performance enhancing drugs, should this tarnish their legacy or eliminate the records they set?

During the prime of the “steroid era” in baseball, these drugs were banned from the league. The records that guys like Sosa and Bonds set where done against the rules of the league so should their accomplishments be ridden of? It is not fair to guys who played the game decades ago who had no drugs to give them huge muscle. It is not fair to those guys who played during this era and played clean without the use of these drugs. It is not fair to those players now who play clean and have the impossible task of breaking the records of men who cheated to get in the position they are in. On the other hand, many people think that these players would have had Hall of Fame careers even without the use of these illegal substances.

Barry Bonds                                              Via SI.com

In my opinion, It is not fair to players in the past who have had their records broken by these players who cheated and it is not fair to players today who play cleanly and have to try to match these crazy numbers that were put up by guys who have even admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. But I also see that at the beginning of that era, players used these substances in order to gain a competitive advantage over other players, but by the time when McGwire and Bonds and Sosa all began to put up incredible numbers of homeruns each year, players were no longer using these substances in order to gain an advantage over their opponents, they were using these substances in order to even the playing field because everyone was using them at this time and players had to use them if they wanted to keep up with the other players.

Do I think it is fair that guys who cheated hold records like this and sit in the Hall of Fame? No I do not think that it is fair. Do I think that these guys should be stripped of their accolades? No because it is not arguable that these guys were all tremendous talents in the sport and what they did was really a product of the time period that they played in.

In recent weeks, there has been a movement to legalize gambling on professional sports games. While betting on sports games is legal in Las Vegas, that is currently the only place where this is allowed to take place. Even with such strict restrictions on sports betting, this is still a multi-billion dollar industry that raked in nearly 5 billion dollars of revenue in 2016 and is expected to soon exceed that number and should pass that number tremendously if this is legalized outside of Nevada. Now obviously, with such large amounts of money being generated in the business, large sports corporations want to be a part of  it. The NFL, NBA, MLB and even the NCAA and other major sports brands are looking for a part in it and the NBA was the first to make a step towards these legal wagers and are asking for 1% of all bets made on all games which may seem miniscule but will ultimately add up to a lot of money. Now there could be good and bad that comes from legalizing such sorts of gambling and many people are on the side of making it a reality, especially the sports organizations.

Via CalvinAyre.com

Gambling has always been a part of sports but it does not have a good history within sports and I think that is what people are afraid of. While thousands of bets go on in Las Vegas on the daily, there are always the notable incidents in the past that ruin it for everyone and make people hesitant to take it to the next level. The most legendary stories of sports gambling include stories like that of Pete Rose who now has a lifetime ban from baseball because of bets he placed illegally and bets that he even placed on the Reds, who he was managing at the time. Other stories include that involving point shaving in college basketball which has happened on numerous occasions where gamblers bribe college basketball players to not throw away the game but to allow the other team to cover the spread (let the score points so that the people betting can win their bets on how much that team is going to win by) so that they can win their bets. Now the most major of sports gambling incidents which is likely the basis for why it is not legal today is due to the Chicago “BlackSocks”scandal in 1919 where eight white socks players were paid a total of $100,000 to purposely lose the World Series.

Via Phactual

If gambling became legalized everywhere, there is no doubt that there would be people who would take advantage of it and more incidents like this would happen. Maybe not on that big of a stage but players being influenced by the money (yeah like they aren’t already) could really hurt the integrity of the game that their is today. This would also put lots of pressure on players to perform to the liking of the gamblers and could result in major backlash from these people if their team does not win or the player they bet on does not perform the way they wanted them to.

Now many fans are on board with the idea. The NBA has proposed that gambling goes much more widespread than just at Casinos. They are pushing for legalized betting at kiosks and even on your smartphone. With this easy of access to gambling, it could create an even greater issue for people who have gambling problems. Now the NBA could care less about that issue because with such easy access to wagering on their sports events, if they are earning a commission of the wagers, they will obviously be making more money.Now these issues are being analyzed at the level of the Supreme Court and it is expected that a decision on the subject could be coming out by spring time this year.

In my opinion, I do not think this is a good idea. Betting on sports has been an interesting part of sports the way it is now. Even though I do not bet on sports myself, I do enjoy looking Vegas’s odds put out on “Who is going to win the Heisman Trophy” or “What team is going to win the Super Bowl this year”. But that is the small amount that I think should be allowed. Sports betting would take over and I believe it would be on the same level as fantasy football is today. With millions of users, people watch pro football games, not to see who wins but to scream at the TV screen in joy when a player on their team scores a touchdown for their fantasy team or curse that player’s name if he gets injured. It takes away from the simplicity and relaxing nature of being able to watch these game with your friends and family and while this will open up a new market for income in these major corporations, they obviously do not have the populations best interest in mind when going through with this.

This blog post is going to be unusually similar to my previous blog post about whether or not the Washington Redskins should change their name. Over the past years, the Cleveland Indians have been going through a similar process. The Indians, while sharing a similar controversy, they do not share the same controversial name that Washington does. Instead of their name, it is their mascot, Chief Wahoo, who has caused controversy itself with its “stereotypical” representation of an Indian. Many native Americans find this depiction to be very offensive but again, just like the Redskins, this historical franshise has been built off of their mascot and the backlash from fans if the mascot or name was to change would be extreme.

Via SFGate

On Monday, the Cleveland Indians announced that they would be removing Chief Wahoo from their uniform and hats once and for all after the 2018 season. This decision came from Indian’s owner Paul Dolan after many people, including the MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred advocated for this change. The Indians have obviously been trying to avoid this drastic change but they saw that it was inevitable. The concept of completely changing the name of the Cleveland Indians first arose in 1994 when the team moved to Jacobs Field (later name Progressive Field). This change in scenery offered as good a time as any for them to change their name but the idea ultimately did not go through. Protest against the name and the mascot/logo (Chief Wahoo) continued through the years. In 2013, the first steps towards getting rid of the logo took place. Chief Wahoo was removed from the primary cap of the players and was replaced by the simple block-letter “C” that we see today. Previously, the logo could still be found on the sleeve of the uniform of each player but even that is now gone. The logo will remain on Indians merchandise on other licensed products but throughout the stadium and on the uniforms, Chief Wahoo is no more.

People still say that this is not enough to just get rid of the logo and not change the name but Paul Dolan said that no attempt to rename the team will take place in the immediate future. While this may be the case, same for the Redskins, it seems that a name change is inevitable. People will continue to protest until they do change the name and as we can see, the Cleveland Indians are making an attempt to compromise (unlike the Redskins front office) but for the Native Americans and the people are against the team name, they will not cease until the name is changed no matter the attempt to compromise. A name change for both the Indians and the Redskins are on the horizon.

Obviously the reaction to hearing the news that Chief Wahoo is being removed from all aspects of the team was differing. Some people rejoiced that the front office and the people in power heard their cries. Although this was a step in the right direction for those who it pertains an issue to, it is merely that, a step. On the other hand “RIP Chief Wahoo” tweets have been trending on twitter and the fan base is mourning the death of a figurehead that has stood for nearly 100 years. Fans are praying that the Cleveland Indians can win the World Series this year, not for the glory and happiness that comes with winning a World Series, but to emblazon Chief Wahoo onto every TV in America one last time and into the record books where he will live on forever… but that probably wont happen.

Via teleSUR

My opinion on the matter is similar to that in which I spoke of in my Redskins post. I think they should change the name for the sake of those who are being hurt and offended. Again, I am as big a sports fan as they come, but in the end, it is just a sports team and it is something that all people can come together and enjoy and if that isn’t being accomplished, changes should be made. On the Indians though, I am slightly more hesitant in my belief that they should change the name. The Indians have been around for a very long time and have been a historic franchise in baseball. I feel they do their part to coexist with the Native Americans and do their best to respect their culture and bring it to the game. Also, they demonstate a willingness to compromise with the people and try to make it so that everyone can be happy and simply enjoy baseball as it is meant to be enjoyed. Although that is the goal, it is nearly impossible to make everyone happy. Whatever decision the Indians make in the future, it will be the wrong one in the eyes of someone.

This is an issue that has be prevalent for a long time in sports but it has really picked up traction over the past couple of years. Many modern day Native American tribes are offended by the mascot of the Washington Redskins. Not only is the name of the team offensive to Native Americans themselves, the representation of these people by their mascot and memorabilia can also be seen as offensive to this group of people. What if their name was the “Whiteskins” or the “Blackskins”. The name is clearly racist to the group it is attempting to portray. There are two sides to the argument and those who wish to change the name want it to change because of its racial indications and the fact that so many people in the Redskins organization are profiting off of this racial slur. On the other hand, many people say that the name has been in place for too long and the history of it is more important than the injustice that is going on.

Via Michael Konik

As an avid sports fan, I follow all of the NFL teams and while the Redskins are not by any means my favorite team, I am from the D.C area from a town that was majority redskins fans. I grew up under the impression that the name really wasn’t hurting anybody and it was a name that everyone recognized. But as a grew older and followed sports more and more, I was able to see the protests and the tribes standing up to the Redskins’ organization and speaking up. People say that historically the word “redskin” did not have racist connotation as it was supposedly what Native Americans called themselves to differentiate themselves when the European settlers came to their homeland. But even if the name is not historically used as a racist term, people are being offended and the name is hurting people and they have to sit back and watch people profit off of this disrespectful name. We cannot sit here and decided what is or is not offensive to a group of people. If they are beinf hurt and feel disrespected by the actions of the Redskins organization, they should be able to have their voices heard.

The message that the Redskins organization is sending is one of enablement, showing that it is ok to continue to disrespect this group of people, completely disregarding the feelings of others. No fan wants to see the name of their favorite team be completely changed and the uproar that changing the name of the team would cause would be undoubtedly horrendous but, the fan base is simply arguing that they should continue to use this name for that very reason. “They have always been the Redskins.” That somehow is a valid argument here in the United States. If ethnic group was being racially offended by something as big as a professional sports team, no doubt that action would take place right away. But the fact that the Native American population is so small here in comparison to other groups, people overlook them and are willing to take advantage of their small and quiet voice and of course make a profit off of it.

How hard would it be to change the name? I am as avid a sports fan as you can find and if the name of my favorite football team was offending a significant amount of people, I would be on board to change it right away. It is just a name. It does not define your team. I think that the Redskins organization could be able to make a positive and profitable change if they did change the name. Obviously the fans would be devastated by the idea of changing the name but they have released everything from concept names to concept uniforms with ideas of what the new team could possibly look like and I think their are many better mascots that they could choose even if the name was not offensive. Personally, my favorite is the Washington Warriors which I think would be very suitable but even minor changes could go a long way with helping to be aware of a community that feels it is being disrespected. In fact, the Redskins owner, Dan Snyder had already trademarked the name “Washington Warriors” over ten years ago. Names like the Redhawks or even simply the skins would hopefully appeal to the fan base and even with just a minor adjustment we could make it one step closer to making the world a happier place.

Washington Warriors Concept Uniforms         Via Behance

Honestly, it is just the name of a football team. People are being hurt by it and changing the name of it to avoid this problem is really a simple solution. Whether they change the name or not, the Redskins do need to make an attempt to meet with the modern Native Americans and decide what might be a course of action that could make both parties happy.

When we all sat down around our dinner table with our families to make the life changing decision of what to university to continue our education at we weighed factors like quality of education, location, cost and many of other factors but the key factor that it all comes down to in the end: college athletics (ok maybe not everyone’s key factor but its a benefit for sure). Having a good football team or basketball team creates a exciting culture around campus and its something that very few would not want to be a part of. College athletics can define an entire school and are often a major source of revenue for many schools. It is reported that college sports generates over 11 billion dollars of annual revenue. In a market that is so filled with money, the people who are bring in that revenue are getting none of the money. Some people argue that these athletes are being exploited in order to continue raking massive amounts of revenue and are not being compensated appropriately for the time that they dedicate to their craft. Others argue that earning a scholarship and free room and board and a meal plan and other benefits is more than enough of a payment for what they do.

The rules on this concept of players not being allowed to accept any sort of money is very strictly enforced by the NCAA. Two of the most notable occurrences  of these rules being broken include two of the best college football players to ever player the game: Cam Newton at the Auburn University and Reggie Bush at the University of Southern California. While these rules crack down on issues as small as players accepting money for autographs these high profile incidents involved directly paying players in order to influence them. It was uncovered that before Cam Newton had decided to play his college career at Auburn, his father has demanded that the competing school of Mississippi State give him $180,000 for him to take his talents there. This is obviously a direct rules violation and scandals like this play a big role in why college athletes are not allowed to accept money, so that they do not find loop holes that would encourage such behavior.

Via Orange County Register

Then there is the Reggie Bush scandal that rocked the world while USC was dominating the college football world in the mid-2000s. This scandal is not like the blunt, demanding of money that took place with Cam Newton. Reggie Bush was an outstanding college football player. The star running back for what seemed to be becoming on of college football’s great dynasties. After Reggie Bush walked away with the 2004 Heisman Trophy, it was uncovered that him and his family had accepted over $100,000 worth of illegal payments. These payments obviously violated the NCAA rules but if you look at what the payments received were, you can understand why so many players accept payment “under the table” like this. Some of the payments that Bush accepted were for things like airplane tickets and rental cars for his family who was very poor to be able to travel to games to be able to watch their sun play as well as paying the rent on his family’s house as they were threatened to be evicted. The money even went to buying suits for Bush’s stepdad and brother so that they could wear them to the Heisman Trophy presentation where Bush would go on to bring home the award. Now, Bush has returned his Heisman Trophy due to his violations.

Many players out there today are in a similar situation that Bush and his family came from. Living paycheck to paycheck in neighborhoods that are often not suitable for a child to be raised in. Many young boys in this situation dream of playing in the NFL where they can be making millions of dollars to play the game that they love. Football and sports are an escape and an opportunity for many young boys and girls who want to be able to provide for themselves and their families. It is often argued that for this reason players should be able to accept money. Players playing at the college level are not able to work a job in order to make money whenever they are dedicating countless hours to on the field and in the weight room when they are not working on the same course load that we all have as college students. Money can be a problem for student athletes who are provided with a meal plan and housing but there are so many other things that we as humans require that costs money that can often be difficult for some of these student athletes to afford.

On the other side of the debate, people argue that if they athletes were allowed to accept money, many players would try to make money off of their own brand and universities may have even more of a reason to exploit athletes by selling autographs and other such practices. Also, it is not like these kids are not being compensated at all, the cost of tuition can be as much as an annual salary for them and to have their education completely paid for is worth a lot. Whether or not players are paid in order to play this game that they love, they have the opportunity to play at this level for free and are given the chance to prove themselves and play in the pros but even if they do not make it there, they will walk away with a degree and completely debt free primed for success in the real world.

Via NESN.com

Should top tier high school athletes have to go play a year (3 years for the NFL) at the college level before the can declare for the professional draft? This question has been disputed for some time now and there seems to be no solution to the issue. Consciously it only makes sense for these young talents to take a year to mature and grow before they jump right into the big leagues but with this requirement also come consequences that can ultimately hurt players who intended on playing professionally at the highest level. Possibilities of career ending injuries and lack of financial compensation are just a couple of the negatives that can arise when forcing players to go to college. The opinions of players can be mixed as well on this subject but in the end, the sooner they can get to the league, the more money they are going to make and that idea can be very enticing for young men as young as 17 years old.

Via USA Today

As we have all found out, the college experience is something that not only educates you on the intellectual concepts of science or business or whatever field you are studying, but it also teaches you independence and maturity and time management along with other skills that are necessary to carry into the adult world. With 17 year olds, jumping into a world of stardom with millions of dollars at their disposal, a little foundation and experience handling life on your own only makes sense. It is only a year or so that you have to spend in college and with that, it can really go a long way in teaching the future generations of players how to conduct themselves on and off the field.

While a forcing players to attend a single year of college can help to improve players skills on the court and improve themselves off of the court, the opposing argument is that it is only a single year that may not make a huge impact in the grand scheme of things. Why go to a year of college and take only a handful of classes so that you can just leave when spring comes around. Player’s view on the situation is often that this time period does not do a lot to add to their stock as a draft prospect and it only opens up the opportunity for injuries which could cost athletes millions of dollars in the future (yeah as if professional athletes don’t make enough money as it is, but that’s another blog post in itself) as well as risk having a career ending injury which could jeopardize a players entire future.

To exemplify a situation where a players draft stock is not affected by not attending college come in the likes of legendary players such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett who entered the draft before this rule came into play. Each of them turned out alright didn’t they? Each are future locks for the basketball Hall of Fame and have accumulated millions of dollars over the span of their careers and they never even attended college. Current players look at player like this and think “If some of the best basketball players in history never went to college, I can be great without going to college too.”

Another situation that is going on today involves 2017’s number one high school recruit, Michael Porter Jr. Michael Porter Jr. came out of high school as the top ranked high school recruit and decided that he was going to commit to play basketball at the University of Missouri. Entering the preseason weeks of college basketball, Porter was projected to go first overall in the NBA draft even without showing  his skills on the college level for a single minute. Then when the regular season came around and it came time for him to showcase his talents against Iowa State in his first colligate basketball game, he left the game with a gruesome injury that was soon revealed to be a lower back injury that would leave him needing season ending surgery. Now you would think this would hurt his draft stock and leave him with no option but to return for his sophomore year in order to prove himself, but if you look at current mock drafts, they are still projecting him as a lock for a top 5 pick. Nbadraft.net has him projected going fourth overall and he has not even played a full game in college. Even without playing a game, he will have fulfilled his college requirement and will be eligible for the draft.

Via SI.com

Situations like this are a bad example for young players today. Young talents see all these players going to the league with minimal college experience and players like the Ball brothers are filling their college requirement by playing overseas in international basketball leauges where they are also financially compensated for their play unlike college where players often cant afford to buy their own meals (again, another whole blog post for another time). Players look to these guys as a positive example but what you don’t here about are all of the guys who came out of high school back before the rule was enacted and became huge busts and were left with nothing once they were left without a job in the league and had no college education.  Players often see this requirement as a bad thing but in the end, I believe that it leads them to holistically, a better life on the professional level and a successful life when they finish their careers.