Reebok's Chris Rivers on NCAA-NBA partnership

At the Final Four the NCAA and NBA announced an "historic partnership" to improve youth basketball. My friend Chris Rivers, Reebok's director of basketball sports marketing, writes a must-read column in Basketball Times. This month he offers his thoughts on the NCAA/NBA partnership to "raise awareness rather than offend."

From Chris Rivers, Reebok:

I applaud the fact that [the NCAA-NBA Partnership has] raised $5 million dollars to put together a task force of "later to be named" individuals to work in a "later to be named" location and specifically address "later to be named" issues.

Below are just some thoughts that make you go "hmm."

• When was the last time anyone saw David Stern or Myles Brand at a youth basketball game?
• If the NCAA's primary concern is education, how can teams fly three hours for an NCAA Tournament game – two days before it starts – and then tell parents that their son needs to attend summer school to make up for the time missed while traveling?
• If college coaches and universities can have million-dollar shoe contracts and multimillion-dollar all-school deals, why are the July shoe camps being "redflagged" as something that isn't good for the game?
• If the NCAA seems so concerned with a certain element that surrounds youth basketball, why have such a high percentage of college coaches evolved from this same system?
• Who was the last NCAA head coach who used his own personal credit card to make sure his program had hotel rooms during a recent road trip? What about airline tickets? Meals? Rental cars? Keep thinking.
• If youth basketball is in such need of a developmental overhaul to produce better fundamentally sound players, why do underclassmen annually dominate the NBA draft?
• I agree that our system should have more regulations and better training and coaching, like our national soccer system. I have studied some of their infrastructure, and they are very impressive at the youth level. But let's just hope that our international performance record is better than our soccer brethren, which last won the World Cup in 1950.

Excerpts published with permission from Basketball Times. Subscribe at www.basketballtimes.com.

BTW-- Chris has a significant role in the upcoming basketball documentary Gunnin' for that Number #1 Spot."

Comments

[Greg Gallina]

As a soccer guy (and NBA guy, of course), I appreciate the shout out for the game. However, we didn't win the 1950 World Cup. Uruguay did. We beat a heavily, heavily favored England in the first round, but we didn't win it. In fact, we never have. International soccer is a beast. It's unforgiving and hyper-competitive. One day, though...

[Sam]

Love how the NCAA wants to point fingers at all the horrible outside influences infecting basketball. Even Pogo knew the real enemy. For starters...it's ridiculous that college coaches can fawn over 14-year olds and offer them scholarships.