Money Players

The never-ending Jeremy Tyler debate

NY Times writer Pete Thamel puts together a great sampling of opinion on Tyler's decision.

In Jeremy's own words

“If I go to college and fill up an arena with 30,000 people, I don’t get a penny. In my profession with what I’m doing in my life, it doesn’t need a full college degree. I’m definitely going to take classes over there. I want to be there, have fun and learn stuff that I don’t know. I’m going to study the culture, study the language and how their lifestyle is different than mine. I don’t know another language. I want to learn something else.”

Great point. Education does not have to take place in the classroom.

Sports Illustrated's George Dohrmann offers a couple interesting revelations about Tyler and his recruitment by both Louisville and by sports agents. The first one is hardly shocking: A sports agency offered cash to the Tyler family to tide them over until he declared for the NBA draft. The next one is a bit more salacious. Drumroll please...

"Around the same time [agents were offering money], coaches at Louisville and other schools began reviewing Jeremy's transcripts. They looked for ways to get him into college next fall, a full year ahead of schedule for a student in the class of 2010. "They went through his grades and wanted to help set up a program with online courses and other things," James Tyler said. "These schools have their ways of getting things done. They were saying, 'Let's see how we can get him a year early.'" (Louisville declined to comment, citing NCAA recruiting rules.)

For those who believe that agents and runners are intruding in the lives of young basketball players for their own benefit, stand in line. In my world, online courses equals GED! Bomani Jones has a great interview with my guy Dan Wetzel, who broke the Tyler story for Yahoo! Sports. The entire interview is worth listening to, but here are a few highlights from Dan...

He's getting shredded all over the country for this decision. If he just went to one of these high schools that doesn't even exist, They have 16 kids in the high school and 12 play basketball. 

There's no actual books. That would be fine. Oh, he's a high school kid. But those things have nothing to do with high school. They are basically a glorified AAU team with a home-school curriculum. Why bother? Why is that charade socially acceptable, but going to Europe with your dad isn't?

This is how you stay eligible for a one and done. You take four classes in the Fall. You get 2 Ds and 2 Fs. Then you don't show for a single class in the Spring. And you playing in the Final Four. That's all it takes.

[The Tylers] do think it's the right thing for them. Having talked to them and kinda liking them, the only thing I hope is people allow them to make their own decision and not just sit there and say, Oh this kid must do this and just stereotype him and call him a fool for trying.

It's a complete joke. They know it's a joke. They are told it's a joke by the coaches recruiting them. The academics mean very little in this case. These people do think it's the right thing for them. Having talked to them and kinda liking them, the only thing I hope is people allow them to make their own decision and not just sit there and say, Oh this kid must do this and just stereotype him and call him a fool for trying.

I posted a response on the DoubleAZone, the NCAA's "official blog. This elicited the following from Greg Johnson...

There's nothing wrong with enjoying your high school or college years and becoming a more rounded person. Someone needs to explain to me why finishing high school and going to college, even for a year in some cases, is the worst thing that can happen to a person.

Seems like it is only NCAA officials who spin the tale that one year in college is better than none. Maybe if these players actually stayed the entire academic year, I would grant that point, but as soon as the season ends most (probably all) "one and done" players drop out to prepare for the draft. Let's not live in a fantasy world. One and done is a farce for both athlete and institution.

To me it's crazy to make such a big deal for five to maybe 10 players a year. For most players, college is absolutely the best model.

If this is all about allowing kids to be kids, how come there's not similar outrage when football coaches encourage talented players "go college early" in order to participate in spring practice?

--Marc Isenberg

Update: Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop writes: "To me the best part of all is having more than one system, which is new. There was not much pressure on the NCAA to prepare athletes better than anybody else (whether for basketball or life after basketball). They got all the athletes!" Another good point.

Sex, Lies & NFL interrogations

According to NFL draft prospect Jerod Mayo, an NFL team asked him: "When's the last time you cheated on your girlfriend?" The logical follow up question by this Javert-type had to then be, "And when did you stop beating her?"

I understand the need for NFL teams to do background checks on draft prospects, but this question assumes guilt. Mayo handled the situation very well: "They didn't even ask me, 'Did you cheat on your girlfriend?' I told them I didn't cheat on my girlfriend."

This reminds me of the great story then-free agent Jayson Williams told about how the Chicago Bulls put him through several hours of psychological testing and questioning. The Bulls then signed the ultimate headcase, Dennis Rodman. On the other hand, Rodman never shot anyone to death, so perhaps Jerry Krause knew what he was doing. 

Roger Goodell to NFL teams: Zip It

NFL commish Roger Goodell set memos to NFL teams warning them not to leak confidential information. While NFL fans have an insatiable appetite for draft informaiton, it is imperative that NFL teams protect private information concerning draft prospects. This issue comes up every year, typically over leaked Wonderlic Test scores. NFL teams have legitimate reasons to conduct extensive background checks. However, if they are going to acquire this information, NFL have a responsibility to ensure that players' rights are protected.

Last week Pro Football Weekly revealed that three top NFL prospects admitted marijuana use.

Goodell told USA Today, "I'm troubled by the breach of confidentiality. Whenever you get into these situations leading up to the draft, you have a lot of misinformation put out there...We've got to be very careful not to let information that is supposed to be confidential get distributed."

Going Pro or Stay: The Truth

SI's college basketball writer Grant Wahl analyzes the economics of basketball players staying in college.

He looks at whether there is a "any correlation between how long a player stays in college and the contribution he actually makes in the NBA."

Check out Wahl's research. Wahl's conclusion: If you're a sure-fire first round pick, history suggests there is "little to no advantage to sticking around college for another year (if all you're concerned about is your NBA livelihood and performance and not the value of, say, enjoying college, earning a degree, winning a national championship, etc.)"

Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan has other ideas. Said Donovan, "To me the most important statistic in the NBA if you're a player is minutes played. If you're not playing, you can't produce...The big question is, What kind of second contract are you signing?"

I would like to believe college athletics is the best training ground for elite players to develop their abilities for an career in professional sports. But the decision should be based on critical analysis, not emotional rhetoric.

There are many great reasons to stay in school, particularly if a college athlete is engaged in the pursuit of a quality education, enjoys college life, and wants to win a championship, etc. But many in the business of college athletics (particularly Dick Vitale) often zealously make the case against leaving school early. They point out the failures, including Korleone Young, Leon Smith, Taj McDavid (often used as Exhibit A when citing the mistake of players turning pro early, but in reality he wasn't a legitimate pro prospect or even a D1 prospect). They fail to point out the many more athletes whose career were derailed during their college careers (either by poor off the court decisions or simply by poor play).

Certainly professional sports is not an ideal world for young athletes, but neither is college athletics, where there are just as many (perhaps more) corrupting influences.

Unfortunately many athletes are so focused on getting into professional sports that they never think beyond that. The goal isn’t to get to the pros, it’s to stay in the pros. Do you want to be a first-round pick, sign a rookie contract, and then be out of the League after a couple of seasons? Or is your goal to have a 10-year career?  The key is not the first contract (based on artificial "rookie minimums"), but the second contract (which is capped at $12 to $16.8 million  per year based on experience). As Grant Wahl's analysis shows there appears to be a diminishing return the longer college players stay in school beyond the NBA required age minimums when viewed in terms of the value of the second contract.

Law professor Michael McCann wrote a scholarly article on this subject titled, "Illegal Defense: The Irrational Economics of Banning High School Players from the NBA Draft."

The article "finds that players drafted straight out of high school are not only likely to do well in the NBA, but are likely to become better players than any other age group entering the league. In fact, on average, these players perform better in every major statistical category than does the average NBA player or the average NBA player of any age cohort."

I still think that college athletics can play a vital role in preparing future professional athletes, but we shouldn't fall for the rah rah "stay in school" arguments.