It is time for the one-and-done rule to go away. It is taking much of the joy out of college basketball for players, coaches, students and fans, and it has made a complete mockery of the notion that the best college basketball players have any intention of graduating.
These players are simply mercenaries passing through only because the NCAA rules force them to be there.
There are alternatives to forcing players to attend college for just one year. The MLB rule enforces that any player graduating from high school is eligible for the draft. Once they find out where they’re drafted and what kind of money they can make to turn pro, they then decide whether to pursue that professional career or go to college.
One of the most significant reasons so many underclassmen put their names into the NBA draft is because they have agents telling them, “Don’t listen to your coach, I know general managers and you’ll go in the first round.”
Are these agents lying? We don’t know for sure, but we do know that they can’t make any money off their client being in college.
However, only a first round pick in the NBA receives a guaranteed contract. 2nd rounders and free agents? Nothing is set in stone. So, if a player is drafted in the first round and the money’s guaranteed, they will probably want to sign. If not, they might have wished they had gone to college instead.
In baseball, if you choose to enter the draft, you can’t go back into the draft for three years. That establishes the fact that you have to make some effort to go to class and make academic progress in school, not exactly a bad deal.
Also, it means that if you leave school after three years there’s a reasonable chance you might come back and graduate. It means that your coach isn’t recruiting your replacement before you play a single game. It means you might actually get to experience college and won’t be taken advantage of by an agent.
The one-and does don’t go to college, they represent a college. Many of these players are told where they will go in the draft before they play a game. Kentucky Coach John Calipari held an NFL-style scouting combine for NBA executives last fall — before the season began. He also begins recruiting the replacements for his freshman class of commits before they play a single game. I know I’m not the only one that finds that morally incorrect.
Now, there are benefits to staying in college. Two of the best big men in the country this season are Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky and Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas. Why are they so good? Because they stayed in college and learned how to play, developing All-American talent later in their careers.
Kaminsky and Christmas will both likely graduate from their respective colleges, and be adequately prepared for life if their NBA careers do not pan out, yet another benefit of staying in college.
Last March, when Mercer upset Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Jabari Parker was outplayed by Mercer senior Jakob Gollon. Because of injuries, Gollon was a sixth-year player who had turned 24 the previous November. Parker was barely 19. Gollon had played in 118 more college games than Parker.
In all likelihood, Parker, the No. 2 pick in last summer’s NBA draft, will be an all-star someday, while Gollon will never touch the NBA and is now an assistant coach at UW – Stevens Point. My point is that if Parker couldn’t handle Gollon, how could he possibly be ready for the NBA?
“He’s not ready,” said former Georgetown coach John Thompson, who broadcast the game for Westwood One. “But he has to come out. He has no choice. There’s too much money there for him. It’s not right, it’s not fair, it just is.”
So let’s change that and give players an option. If someone is a the real deal with no interest in going to college, let him turn pro out of high school. Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and others did it with great success. Some were utter failures, Kwame Brown and Darius Miles come to mind, but they almost certainly would also have failed with one year of college under their belt.
The one and done rule discriminates against high school players and makes a mockery of the college game. For once and for all, it should be done.