One and Done Should Be No More
By Chris Glennon
If you thought millions of dollars falling out of someone's pocket didn't make a sound, you weren't watching the University of Kentucky play the University of Florida Tuesday night.
With about eight minutes left in the second-half, as Florida essentially had the game locked up, Kentucky's star freshman Nerlens Noel blocked a shot from behind.
He landed awkwardly and fell into the support under the hoop.
He laid on the floor, screaming in agony while holding his left knee, a knee he injured playing in a game he almost surely wouldn't have been in if it weren't required for basketball players to be one year removed from high school before entering the NBA.
An MRI Wednesday morning confirmed what most of us feared: Noel tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
His screams, which some said were audible from press row at the game, were from the excruciating pain he was experiencing. If he's screaming today, though, its likely because his stock as the number one draft pick in the 2013 NBA draft is no longer certain.
In other words, he's no longer guaranteed millions of dollars.
His injury brings up a question about the policy that basketball players must wait a year before playing in the NBA. Most go to college, some go to Europe, but the point remains the same: Players who are ready for the NBA and the millions of dollars and endorsement deals that come with it are forced to endure an extra year before they can claim their riches.
I don't think the decision about heading to the NBA should be up to anyone except for each individual player and their family.
Some players come from families where money isn't an issue, but some have their families counting on their stardom. For those families that are depending on their young adults to provide for them, another year without that money could be a huge deal. And for these same families, an injury, like Noel's, would be devastating.
I say if they don't want to go to college, they shouldn't have to. If I had some great entrepreneurial idea (Bill Gates or Steve Jobs anyone?), I think it would be hard for me to stay in school and wait to start making money. If the product is there, sell it. If the talent is there, move it to the NBA.
Some of the players have no desire to get an education in the first place. If they want an education, they'll enroll when their playing days are over. And they'll be able to pay for it themselves, leaving valuable scholarship opportunities open to those who likely won't make millions.
Noel's career isn't over, but if I were him, there's no way I would be coming back to Kentucky next year to try to regain what I would lose in the next six to eight months of rehab. I'm going straight to the NBA, and straight to the money.
Chris Glennon is a sophomore finance major and editor of the Sports section.