WISEMAN FIASCO SHOWS NCAA IS NOT VERY WISE
U.S. colleges needs to stop pushing away marquee attractions, says Jerry Brewer.
WASHINGTON It’s quite possible the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft will be an American, college-aged phenom that few people really know.
When Memphis freshman centre James Wiseman ended his eligibility fiasco Thursday by deciding to leave school and train for the pros, he shouldn’t have stood out as some singular, nonconforming complication of the one-and-done era. He’s not alone, sadly. College basketball has a mounting star problem.
Wiseman played just three games at Memphis. Two other contenders for the top draft spot, Lamelo Ball and RJ Hampton, decided to skip college altogether, and both play in Australia. They’re both injured, but Ball’s stock has improved significantly over the past year while Hampton has had his talent confirmed for the most part while playing overseas.
Since the NBA raised its age limit from 18 to 19 in 2006, an overwhelming majority of the most gifted high school players have opted to spend one season playing college hoops, returning the superstar freshman to the sport. These semi-pros have challenged the NCAA’S rigid and hypocritical standard of amateurism, but while the relationship has been complicated, it also has been mutually beneficial.
The sport seems to be forgetting that last part, however.
If the NCAA isn’t careful, the one-and-done era in college basketball will turn into a noneand-done dilemma. The NBA already is working through the process to lower its age limit to 18, perhaps by as early as the 2022 draft. In the meantime, college basketball seems to have wrongfully identified superstar freshmen as the root of its evil and it risks sabotaging its own product in distancing itself from these players.
There’s a chance American basketball ultimately will be better, or at least fairer, when these phenoms again can leap directly from high school to the NBA. But right now, there’s nothing good about the talent starting to flee from the college game. It’s a bad look. It robs fans temporarily of players who can help sell the sport.
Wiseman wanted to play college basketball. He was passionate about playing hard and doing his best to restore the Memphis tradition. He was a pied piper for the Tigers’ recruiting; coach Penny Hardaway brought in the nation’s No. 1 class because many wanted to play with Wiseman. And now, he’s gone.
Wiseman was in the middle of a 12-game suspension because, when he was in high school, Hardaway paid US$11,500 to move his family from Nashville to Memphis. Hardaway was a high school coach at the time. Wiseman didn’t know his parents had accepted the money. When it was time for college, the NCAA initially declared Wiseman eligible before changing its mind.
Wiseman and Memphis responded by taking the issue to court, but they backed down after the NCAA provided a pathway to reinstatement. Wiseman had to serve the suspension and donate $11,500 to a charity, which was a bit ludicrous because his family shouldn’t have a spare $11,500 at the moment. It was boilerplate NCAA punishment and the organization’s compromise was to hand it down quickly so Wiseman could return to the court in mid-january.
But while sitting out, Wiseman came to the epiphany that most players of his stature would: I don’t need this. So he will sign with an agent and start preparing for the draft.
There’s still a misconception that players automatically stunt their growth by leaving for the pros too soon.
In an incisive Twitter post — who knew there was such a thing? — ESPN analyst Jay Bilas wrote: “Some will say elite prospects don’t value college sports. The truth is, college sports doesn’t value its elite prospects, either. No purpose was served by suspending Wiseman 12 games. What a sad waste of time and resources. These rules and sanctions need to change.”
When Hampton decided to skip college, it came as a surprise because he had the grades and the temperament to thrive in school. And when he articulated his reason for choosing Australia over some college hoops haven, he shredded the illusion that every dribbling American kid grows up with visions of playing in the Final Four.
“My dream has never been to play college basketball,” Hampton said in May when he announced the news on ESPN. “My dream is always to get to the next level and to play in the NBA, so I think this was the best route for me: to live like a pro and play grown men every day and not kind of have to juggle books and basketball and just focus on my main goal.”
For the NCAA, it’s a very bad message. Big-time college athletics can keep hiding behind this facade of protecting amateurism’s integrity. It can keep counting its money that way, for now. Or it can realize that it’s creating a void, one often filled by a black market but one ripe for a smart and legitimate business mind to create something new and better.
This is the NCAA’S existential question. The clock is ticking, and its status as the best league for athletes to develop before turning pro — which is a primary, if unstated, reason college athletics are so lucrative — is open for debate.
So let’s make it clear for the dinosaur: Push away the James Wisemans, and push yourself further toward extinction.