I recently found an article discussing the “One and Done” Rule in NCAA Basketball. If you do not know what this rule is about, it is a regulation implemented by the NBA stating that for a player to enter the NBA Draft, he must be of at least 19 years of age. As a result, most high school basketball players that have NBA level talent go to college for one year and play in the NCAA. Although they have a scholarship, these students are unpaid by these colleges (or that is what they claim, but that is another issue for another day). At the same time, because of their exquisite skills, they attract a lot of fans and make a significant amount of money for the school. It is common knowledge that basketball is the most played sport from K-12, for it accommodates both girls and boys. Statistics also show that intercity children are more likely to grow up playing basketball than any other sport.
With that being said, the article that I came across included a statement from Detroit Pistons Head Coach Stan Van-Gundy, who calls out this rule for being racist. Van-Gundy states, “I don’t understand why, as an industry, basketball or any other professional sport, we’re able to limit somebody’s ability to make money. I don’t get it. I think personally — and now I’m definitely on a soapbox — the people who were against them coming out made a lot of excuses but a lot of it was racist. The reason I’m going to say that is I’ve never heard anybody go up arms about letting kids go out and play minor-league baseball or hockey. They’re not making big money and they’re White kids and nobody has a problem. But all of a sudden, you’ve got a Black kid who wants to come out of high school and make millions — that’s a bad decision? But bypassing college to go play for $800 a month in minor-league baseball – that’s a fine decision? What the hell is going on? If there’s a college that can’t tell a kid that has a chance to make $2.5 million-$3 million a year guaranteed for four years that you should skip college, then the institution is no good.”
I believe that Coach Van-Gundy is making a fair argument by saying that the powers in place do not want to see these kids of color succeed at such a young age. I also think, from an economics standpoint, that the NBA wants to see kids (because they are still kids) play at a higher level of basketball than just high school before they pay them millions of dollars. This rule has 100% corrupted D1 NCAA Basketball. In College Basketball News, we keep seeing all of these payment scandals come out from the woodwork, begging the question of whether or not we should keep things the way they are, if we should pay these athletes, or if we should let them go from high school to the NBA. Is this rule racist? Should we remove it? Why or why not?
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