Thoughts on the NBA, the NCAA, and Raising the Age Limit
There have been rumblings about the NBA possibly considering raising the age limit from 19 to 20 years of age. I’ve seen some opinions throughout the internets on this possibility, and felt it was time to put my own opinions on the matter out there.
First of all, as has been proven time and time again there is no proof that players coming directly out of high school into the pros fair worse or cause the league more trouble than players that have gone to college for any amount of time. I think its fair to say that since the 19 year old/plus one limit has been put into place there has really been no difference between kids that go to school for one year and kids that stay in school two, three, or four years. So why are people insisting on or even supporting a possible age limit increase?
Here’s what it comes down to:
1. The NBA trying to appease white society’s urge to serve as a paternal figure over inner city black males that have a chance to make millions of dollars at an early age
First of all, as has been proven time and time again there is no proof that players coming directly out of high school into the pros fair worse or cause the league more trouble than players that have gone to college for any amount of time. I think its fair to say that since the 19 year old/plus one limit has been put into place there has really been no difference between kids that go to school for one year and kids that stay in school two, three, or four years. So why are people insisting on or even supporting a possible age limit increase?
Here’s what it comes down to:
1. The NBA trying to appease white society’s urge to serve as a paternal figure over inner city black males that have a chance to make millions of dollars at an early age
How else can you explain it? You often hear supporters of the age limit say that these kids need a college education. Yet, why is it perceptively okay for tennis, golf, and baseball stars to jump from high school to the pros right away? I mean, some tennis and golf stars turn pro before they even turn 18. And why is it okay for European players to enter the draft when they turn 18 without any objection from anyone?
2. The NBA’s urge to have players marketed by the national stage of the NCAA before reaching the NBA
For the NBA it’s all about the free marketing that they get from the NCAA. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant came into the league with more fan fare than Dwight Howard, because they both got the national stage of playing for major division one college basketball programs. In fact, fans in Orlando were calling for the Magic to pick Emeka Okafor over Dwight Howard in the 2004 draft because of the name recognition and familiarity with basketball fans he had after leading the UConn Huskies to the 2004 NCAA Championship. So for the NBA, it helps to have guys that are already packaged to sell that have familiarity with fans through the NCAA. I mean, do you think Magic versus Bird would have become the rivalry it did in the NBA if those two hadn’t played each other on the stage of the NCAA Finals?
3. The NCAA’s urge to keep its exploitive system going
The NCAA treats these kids like second class kids or slave laborers that should be happy that they are being thrown a bone in the form of a scholarship. But the truth of the matter is that the scholarship notion is a complete farce. First, students playing revenue generating sports never get a chance to be a real student. They are first and foremost an athlete and spend most of their days training and preparing for games. They aren’t a normal part of the student body, and thus aren’t really getting the full college experience. Next, take all of the scholarships given to the athletes playing revenue generating sports and add them up and it won’t even come close to matching the fair share of the revenue that these athlete’s generate (see: here and here).
Why do people get so upset about young inner city black males getting paid their fair share of the revenue they generate? We live in a society where CEOs that drive companies to near bankruptcy still get compensated millions of dollars, yet people get angry at the suggestion of giving these athletes their fair share of the billions they generate? The warm and fuzzy feeling that the sham of amateurism gives many of these fans as well as the blind allegiance that many of these guys have to their institution of higher learning is what makes most people okay with the current system. Or as Stephen Colbert once said: "The NCAA basketball tournament has everything I like: corporate sponsorship, unpaid labor and blind partisan allegiance."
And it’s sad because everyone around the players is making money except the players themselves. The shoe companies (and other sponsors), the schools, the NCAA, Wes Wesley and the Pump brothers of the world, and the coaches are all making a ton of dough. Yet the people that are the most responsible for the NCAA basketball revenue being generated are not given a dime beyond a scholarship that can be revoked from them at any time, and that they don’t really get a chance to utilize because of their commitments as a big time NCAA athlete.
Coaches not just making millions of dollars from their contracts. From what I’ve been told many of them get to keep all or part of the shoe money their school gets for having their players where a specific brand. Read that again. Coaches get paid for the players wearing a brand. Don’t you think it would be more fair for players to get paid for that? How would you feel if you had a son in high school that was forced to wear a specific brand of shoes so that the high school coach could get paid? Not very fair, right?
While the NCAA limits the amount of tickets that the players and their family can get to tournament games, they have allowed coaches to give away their tickets to Pump brothers so that they can turn around and re-sell them on the market for a big time profit. The NCAA has now got into their own little ticket re-marketing game, by allocating a block of tickets to the website Razorgator. And guess who doesn’t get a piece of that? You guessed it, the players!
The NCAA also allows the Pumps to make tons of money serving as a coaches employment placement firm for schools. I’m sure the Pumps also get paid for sending certain players to certain schools. People have accused Wes Wesley of making money off of the same thing with Memphis and Oregon. (Just a note, I have no problem with what Wesley or the Pumps do for a living. All I care about is making sure that the players get their fair share!)
The NCAA and their member schools market tickets, jerseys, video games, and tons of other products that get most of their value based off of the work that the players put forth. You don’t think it’s fair for the players to get paid a portion of that?
And lets not even get into the television deals. The NCAA has a much documented $6 Billion deal with CBS for the television and internet broadcast rights to the NCAA tournament. As well, each conference has individual television rights deals. And with ESPN Classic, players are forced to have this sham of amateurism allow the NCAA to sell their likenesses without adequate compensation years after the individual has stopped playing NCAA basketball. You’re telling me that the players shouldn’t be entitled to their fair piece of all of this?
In the NBA the players are entitled to 56% of basketball related income. From what I’ve heard every year players not only get their salaries but a check for their slice of licensing from jerseys and memorabilia that gets cut to them at the beginning of each season (this pie is split up amongst the players equally). There is no reason for these NCAA players that are generating the same type of income not to have the same sort of deal going.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see salary negotiations and such for each individual player. I just want there to be a financial entity representing college basketball players where their fair share of the money is collected and put into a fund and invested and then distributed to the players in the forms of adequate living stipends for the year and then either a lump sum or monthly payment for their share of what’s been generated over the time they’ve been in school (Take the total amount that is owed to the players as a whole over that time and divide it by the number of players playing ball at that time and you’ve got your number). Because you’re not playing players individually more than another player, you won’t see the aspects of the NBA distribution of salary that many fans loath creep in here. Players still shouldn't be allowed to market themselves individually (through endorsment deals and such) while they are in college, and should still be required to attend classes (But I think the classes should be geared more toward the business of basketball...but this is a talk for an entirely different time).
For me, it’s pretty simple. You want to force the players to wear a specific brand? Give them half the money. You want to sell the television rights to watch them play basketball to CBS? No problem, just give them half the money.
If the NBA wants to have the platform of their players being marketed by the NCAA machine before they reach the league, then they should work with the NCAA to make sure these players are adequately compensated so that there is incentive for them to stay in school for how many ever years the NBA would like. If the NCAA would like make sure that players stay in school for four years, they should be willing to create incentives for them to do so.
I’m really not concerned about the guys that are going to make it to the pros and make tons of money. But the reality is that a ton of guys never make it to the pros and many of the ones that do never make a significant amount of money. It’s only fair that these players have an opportunity to see their fair share of the billions that they help generate while playing college basketball. College Basketball players (and revenue generating athletes in general) need to start to realize the power that they hold. They need to get organized and start using their power as unit to get things done that will uplift them all. And old players that have been screwed over from the past need to come out and speak up. The guys off of those big time NCAA programs that are struggling today because they never got their fair share of the pot need to come out and speak up about what happened to them because they never got their fair cut of the revenue they generated.
Current NBA Players: Please stay strong!
Current NBA players: Please don’t allow the NBA to con you into bargaining a higher age limit into existence. There is a myth out there that allowing high school players to come into the league hurts veteran players because it makes it so teams have to cut veteran players to make room for these young guys coming into the league and because teams have to pay veteran players less in order to pay the young guys coming into the league. This myth is false for a few reasons. First, the players conceded to a rookie scale which sets salaries for first round picks for up to four years, ensuring that veteran players won’t have their salaries compressed by the entry of high school guys. Second, and most important, there are only sixty players drafted each year. No matter if they come from high school or college after one, two, three, or four years, there are still going to be sixty new guys entering the pot each year. So high school players coming into the league would hurt a veteran just as much as if nothing but college seniors were allowed to enter the draft.
Now I can understand the players agreeing to the limit if the NBA does something drastic and gives the players back the guaranteed years they took back in the during the formation of the last agreement. But outside of a large financial concession such as that, there is no way they should the NBA to block out these young players for another year. Especially considering how many of these players took advantage of the opportunity to jump into the league out of high school or after one year of college. It would be very Ward Connerlyish for players that have taken advantage of that opportunity to block future young players from having the same opportunity.
European Opportunities
2. The NBA’s urge to have players marketed by the national stage of the NCAA before reaching the NBA
For the NBA it’s all about the free marketing that they get from the NCAA. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant came into the league with more fan fare than Dwight Howard, because they both got the national stage of playing for major division one college basketball programs. In fact, fans in Orlando were calling for the Magic to pick Emeka Okafor over Dwight Howard in the 2004 draft because of the name recognition and familiarity with basketball fans he had after leading the UConn Huskies to the 2004 NCAA Championship. So for the NBA, it helps to have guys that are already packaged to sell that have familiarity with fans through the NCAA. I mean, do you think Magic versus Bird would have become the rivalry it did in the NBA if those two hadn’t played each other on the stage of the NCAA Finals?
3. The NCAA’s urge to keep its exploitive system going
The NCAA treats these kids like second class kids or slave laborers that should be happy that they are being thrown a bone in the form of a scholarship. But the truth of the matter is that the scholarship notion is a complete farce. First, students playing revenue generating sports never get a chance to be a real student. They are first and foremost an athlete and spend most of their days training and preparing for games. They aren’t a normal part of the student body, and thus aren’t really getting the full college experience. Next, take all of the scholarships given to the athletes playing revenue generating sports and add them up and it won’t even come close to matching the fair share of the revenue that these athlete’s generate (see: here and here).
Why do people get so upset about young inner city black males getting paid their fair share of the revenue they generate? We live in a society where CEOs that drive companies to near bankruptcy still get compensated millions of dollars, yet people get angry at the suggestion of giving these athletes their fair share of the billions they generate? The warm and fuzzy feeling that the sham of amateurism gives many of these fans as well as the blind allegiance that many of these guys have to their institution of higher learning is what makes most people okay with the current system. Or as Stephen Colbert once said: "The NCAA basketball tournament has everything I like: corporate sponsorship, unpaid labor and blind partisan allegiance."
And it’s sad because everyone around the players is making money except the players themselves. The shoe companies (and other sponsors), the schools, the NCAA, Wes Wesley and the Pump brothers of the world, and the coaches are all making a ton of dough. Yet the people that are the most responsible for the NCAA basketball revenue being generated are not given a dime beyond a scholarship that can be revoked from them at any time, and that they don’t really get a chance to utilize because of their commitments as a big time NCAA athlete.
Coaches not just making millions of dollars from their contracts. From what I’ve been told many of them get to keep all or part of the shoe money their school gets for having their players where a specific brand. Read that again. Coaches get paid for the players wearing a brand. Don’t you think it would be more fair for players to get paid for that? How would you feel if you had a son in high school that was forced to wear a specific brand of shoes so that the high school coach could get paid? Not very fair, right?
While the NCAA limits the amount of tickets that the players and their family can get to tournament games, they have allowed coaches to give away their tickets to Pump brothers so that they can turn around and re-sell them on the market for a big time profit. The NCAA has now got into their own little ticket re-marketing game, by allocating a block of tickets to the website Razorgator. And guess who doesn’t get a piece of that? You guessed it, the players!
The NCAA also allows the Pumps to make tons of money serving as a coaches employment placement firm for schools. I’m sure the Pumps also get paid for sending certain players to certain schools. People have accused Wes Wesley of making money off of the same thing with Memphis and Oregon. (Just a note, I have no problem with what Wesley or the Pumps do for a living. All I care about is making sure that the players get their fair share!)
The NCAA and their member schools market tickets, jerseys, video games, and tons of other products that get most of their value based off of the work that the players put forth. You don’t think it’s fair for the players to get paid a portion of that?
And lets not even get into the television deals. The NCAA has a much documented $6 Billion deal with CBS for the television and internet broadcast rights to the NCAA tournament. As well, each conference has individual television rights deals. And with ESPN Classic, players are forced to have this sham of amateurism allow the NCAA to sell their likenesses without adequate compensation years after the individual has stopped playing NCAA basketball. You’re telling me that the players shouldn’t be entitled to their fair piece of all of this?
In the NBA the players are entitled to 56% of basketball related income. From what I’ve heard every year players not only get their salaries but a check for their slice of licensing from jerseys and memorabilia that gets cut to them at the beginning of each season (this pie is split up amongst the players equally). There is no reason for these NCAA players that are generating the same type of income not to have the same sort of deal going.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see salary negotiations and such for each individual player. I just want there to be a financial entity representing college basketball players where their fair share of the money is collected and put into a fund and invested and then distributed to the players in the forms of adequate living stipends for the year and then either a lump sum or monthly payment for their share of what’s been generated over the time they’ve been in school (Take the total amount that is owed to the players as a whole over that time and divide it by the number of players playing ball at that time and you’ve got your number). Because you’re not playing players individually more than another player, you won’t see the aspects of the NBA distribution of salary that many fans loath creep in here. Players still shouldn't be allowed to market themselves individually (through endorsment deals and such) while they are in college, and should still be required to attend classes (But I think the classes should be geared more toward the business of basketball...but this is a talk for an entirely different time).
For me, it’s pretty simple. You want to force the players to wear a specific brand? Give them half the money. You want to sell the television rights to watch them play basketball to CBS? No problem, just give them half the money.
If the NBA wants to have the platform of their players being marketed by the NCAA machine before they reach the league, then they should work with the NCAA to make sure these players are adequately compensated so that there is incentive for them to stay in school for how many ever years the NBA would like. If the NCAA would like make sure that players stay in school for four years, they should be willing to create incentives for them to do so.
I’m really not concerned about the guys that are going to make it to the pros and make tons of money. But the reality is that a ton of guys never make it to the pros and many of the ones that do never make a significant amount of money. It’s only fair that these players have an opportunity to see their fair share of the billions that they help generate while playing college basketball. College Basketball players (and revenue generating athletes in general) need to start to realize the power that they hold. They need to get organized and start using their power as unit to get things done that will uplift them all. And old players that have been screwed over from the past need to come out and speak up. The guys off of those big time NCAA programs that are struggling today because they never got their fair share of the pot need to come out and speak up about what happened to them because they never got their fair cut of the revenue they generated.
Current NBA Players: Please stay strong!
Current NBA players: Please don’t allow the NBA to con you into bargaining a higher age limit into existence. There is a myth out there that allowing high school players to come into the league hurts veteran players because it makes it so teams have to cut veteran players to make room for these young guys coming into the league and because teams have to pay veteran players less in order to pay the young guys coming into the league. This myth is false for a few reasons. First, the players conceded to a rookie scale which sets salaries for first round picks for up to four years, ensuring that veteran players won’t have their salaries compressed by the entry of high school guys. Second, and most important, there are only sixty players drafted each year. No matter if they come from high school or college after one, two, three, or four years, there are still going to be sixty new guys entering the pot each year. So high school players coming into the league would hurt a veteran just as much as if nothing but college seniors were allowed to enter the draft.
Now I can understand the players agreeing to the limit if the NBA does something drastic and gives the players back the guaranteed years they took back in the during the formation of the last agreement. But outside of a large financial concession such as that, there is no way they should the NBA to block out these young players for another year. Especially considering how many of these players took advantage of the opportunity to jump into the league out of high school or after one year of college. It would be very Ward Connerlyish for players that have taken advantage of that opportunity to block future young players from having the same opportunity.
European Opportunities
If the NBA keeps trying to raise the age limit, while the NCAA continues to refuse to pay players, guys might actually start thinking harder about going oversees to play out the two years before they come into the league. As John Hollinger pointed out in this blog post, this could be an opportunity for top stars to make some money while they become age eligible to play in the NBA. Top prep players haven’t been so willing to do this with just the 19/plus one age restriction because it was only a year. But if they are forced to wait out two years, I think you are going to see more and more guys vying for that option. And if I were running these Euroleague teams, I’d be actively recruiting some of these young guys to come over and play for one to two years. If they could sign some top level prep talent, they could probably start selling packages of games on television or on the internet. It would just be a giant step in the right direction for the Euroleague. Just something the NBA and the NCAA might want to consider.
I have a few questions for you folks out there that might be a little bit more informed about this than me. First, can anyone tell me exactly how the NCAA’s financial structure breaks down? Out of the total pot of revenue, how much money do the schools keep and how much does the NCAA itself keep? And what does the NCAA do with all of the money they’ve earned over the years? Does it go into a fund? Does it go to pay their executives? I’m really interested in knowing this. Checking out the links at the end of this sports law blog post really helped me out, but I’m still craving more information. These two posts (post #1 and post #2) by David Berri, also really helped me out big time. So was this Tom Ferry article from 2001.
Also what happened with this investigation by congress? I mean, I want to know why the NCAA is still tax exempt (at least for the revenue generating sports). If congress is wants to spend their time worry about steroids, why don’t they spend some more time trying to correct the NCAA’s unfair financial structure?
I have a few questions for you folks out there that might be a little bit more informed about this than me. First, can anyone tell me exactly how the NCAA’s financial structure breaks down? Out of the total pot of revenue, how much money do the schools keep and how much does the NCAA itself keep? And what does the NCAA do with all of the money they’ve earned over the years? Does it go into a fund? Does it go to pay their executives? I’m really interested in knowing this. Checking out the links at the end of this sports law blog post really helped me out, but I’m still craving more information. These two posts (post #1 and post #2) by David Berri, also really helped me out big time. So was this Tom Ferry article from 2001.
Also what happened with this investigation by congress? I mean, I want to know why the NCAA is still tax exempt (at least for the revenue generating sports). If congress is wants to spend their time worry about steroids, why don’t they spend some more time trying to correct the NCAA’s unfair financial structure?
10 comments:
Just stumbled on this site from google. Very good points in this post. If the age limit is increased, I'm sure eventually a marquee high school prospect will choose the D-league or Europe over 2 years of college.
Love your stuff Nate!
This, to me, is all about the NBA protecting itself from expensive mistakes, as well as free marketing. I can see no instance in which raising the age limit helps the kids.
Your best work yet, my friend. I never understood the problem about high schoolers jumped to the NBA when baseball players are scouted at 16 and can be drafted after graduating high school. True, most baseball phenoms don't make the big leagues until they are 20-22, but they are still making fairly big money in the minors those 1-2 years before they reach the big time.
If the NBA was 85% white, I don't think there would be such an outcry for an age limit.
By the way, Kobe & Shaq > MJ & Pippen.
Thanks for checking us a few weeks back @ the Echo!
-Zilla Rocca
You're right, it does not benefit the kids, it has however benefited the level of play in the NBA. The level of team play has increased marketedly in the last two years. You would need some kind of control which can never exit but is it a coincidence or does having players with a year of experience where the playing field is somewhat leveled is giving the NBA better team players, thereby increasing the NBA's "watchability"? Stern's responsibility is to his league, not potential employees.
The NBA represents owners. I never understand why everyone is so confused about why they don't want to help kids, or when people think they're unfair to the kids. The NBA only cares whats best for the teams. As the previous poster said, free marketing and avoiding mistakes. The good players are still there in two years.
You're absolutely right, if the age limit changes, and two years of college ball is required there are a few million reasons a prep star would hire an agent and play in Italy for a couple of years. But I don't think this scares the NBA. They want a global product and that could aid that cause.
you have to play the race card in the end, don't you? guilt trip the white people. as a long time non-white fan, i don't have a problem with the age limit at all.
most of these kids are not ready yet, even if they end up being quality players in the end, like a jermaine oneal. it's called maturity, jones. portland did not benefit from jermaine. they got tired of waiting for him to blossom, got impatient and traded him. bad move for them.
michael conley is not ready for the NBA even though i see the potential in him.
and if the NCAA is so bad, there's always the option of going to europe at age 14 and toil there while earning and sending remittances back home until he's ready. with an expat "uncle wesley" type in europe taking care of the young talent, he'll be okay. gets him out of poverty and out of the bad hood too at an early age. he might even learn another language and be more mature than most of his 20 year old counterparts he left behind in america.
It is an exploitive system. It is truly hypocritical. It makes me angry, really angry. Because - in all honesty - I hate the NCAA.
First of all, what is the reason people like the NCAA? A few reasons come to mind.
1. the players are amateurs
2. the players are basically playing their brains out in order to try to land an NBA contract in the end - so they basically kill themselves for a high school-level education (because that is what college is nowadays - high school #2)
3. it's more white than the NBA - and therefore, easier for the average white guy to watch
4. it represent the cult (Secret Society Greek Fraternatiy/Sorority) culture that colleges represent in today's modern age. Game theory basically - pitting one blind allegiance against another.
So, the players are not talented. The games are low-scoring and mostly not any more fun to watch than a random high school game because you don't know who the players are nor do you care. It is just a celebration of one's pride to one's own little college faction. If you are a true fan of the game - the actual game of basketball, you should hate the NCAA and see it for what it really is - a celebration of the sports departments in the major educational institutions in this country. It makes me sick. And people that like the NCAA rarely have any legit reasons as far as the game of basketball is concerned for liking it besides "team play", which to me is bull - just watch the warriors, the suns, the mavericks, the spurs, the celtics, detroit, etc. - all good NBA teams that play
team ball yet they get wacked on for not having a reincarnation of MJ? Hypocrisy!
It always bothers me when people talk about how NCAA men's FB and BB players should be payed to play. Does anyone know how schools pay for scolarships for the non-revenue sports, such as women's volleyball or men's wrestling? They use the money they make on FB and BB. That means for every "inner city black male" who is treated "like ... slave laborers" by playing NCAA football, there are others (including other inner city black males and females) who benefit by recieving a scolarship the school would otherwise not be able to provide.
Big Pimpin is back in style with the NCAA (No Class at All) as Main Man for all the universities to follow. Slavery is back in style. You can't even get a ticket back home under their rule and heck....don't get hurt for God's sake, then they have to kick ya to the curb. It's a shame that this is still going on?! Get me to the Championship, boys. I want my million dollar pay day.
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