Pacers F Jermaine O’Neal, as quoted by Mike Wells in today’s Indianapolis Star.
“In the last two or three years, the Rookie of the Year has been a high school player,” O’Neal said before Monday’s game against Toronto. “There were seven high school players in the All-Star game, so why we even talking (about) an age limit?”
Cleveland’s LeBron James and Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire, both players who made the jump straight from high school, have won the past two Rookie of the Year awards.
O’Neal, who is trying to return from a shoulder injury, made the jump from high school to the NBA in 1996. He didn’t flourish until being traded to the Pacers in 2000.
NBA commissioner David Stern wants to raise the minimum age for the NBA draft from 18 to 20. O’Neal said he would be willing to listen to arguments for raising the age limit.
O’Neal hinted that race is a factor.
“As a black guy, you kind of think (race is) the reason why it’s coming up,” O’Neal said. “You don’t hear about it in baseball or hockey. To say you have to be 20, 21 to get in the league, it’s unconstitutional. If I can go to the U.S. Army and fight the war at 18, why can’t you play basketball for 48 minutes and then go home?”
Jermain for president.
I wish the discussion on this matter would somehow turn back towards the ongoing scandal that is college basketball. Yes, the tournament was exciting this year, especially, as reported here, that Illinois-Louisville game, but on the whole college basketball is the closest thing to the plantation system that currently exists so brightly in the public eye. Billy Packer, and every TV guy who calls those games, are constantly formulating their praise in the most disgustingly patronizing terms. Just pay the student’s a stipend of 20,000 a year. If you can do it for graduate students, why not atheletes? In exchange for their money they can have a teaching requirement… I’m not going to propose what they would teach.
they can teach classes in “How To Be Tall”.
but seriously, big time college sports are either
a) exploitive as fuck
b) a great way to subsidize all of the other college sports that no one likes
c) exploitive as fuck
I would maybe agree about college sports being “exploitive” if, y’know, college players weren’t being offered free tuition. Shit’s expensive, even at state schools these days. Nobody makes them take exciting majors such as “Sports Management” and “Communications.”
even Robby Benson would tell you that a degree in Advanced Going To The Movies doesn’t mean shit when you don’t have enough money to buy rohypnol.