(I'm sorry!!!)
NEW YORK (AP)- Bob Knight has apologized to Kentucky and coach John Calipari after claiming that several of the Wildcats' players did not attend spring semester classes last year.
The Hall of Fame coach and college basketball analyst for ESPN blasted Calipari's habit of recruiting players who spend just a year on campus before bolting for the NBA during a speaking engagement in Indiana last weekend.
The Wildcats went 35-3 during the 2009-10 season, after which freshmen John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton left school for the NBA.
What the hell is Bobby apologizing for? He's not saying anything that isn't 100% true. He must be losing his nerve in his old age. I totally agree with Knight. One-and-dones are not healthy for college basketball. But it's not the players faults. They are forced to play in college for at least one year before they are able to enter the NBA draft. Do you realize how fucked up that is? They are basically slaves for the NCAA for a year. Not allowed to make any money or receive any gifts during that year, while the NCAA and the universities make millions off of them. The NBA and the NFL have to be the only businesses in the country that are allowed to discriminate against potential employees solely based on age. If people like Bobby Knight want the health of college basketball to improve, they should change the rules so that the kids that are playing in college actually want to be there, as opposed to being forced to be there.
The NFL is a little bit different. Players have to be at least 3 years out of high school to enter the draft. But usually, the player's bodies haven't physically matured enough to compete in the NFL, so its a bit different from the NBA. But I still don't think that there should be a set rule that keeps players who happen to be physically ready from entering the NFL. Adrian Peterson rushed for 1,925 yards as a freshman at Oklahoma. He is an example of a guy who was ready to go straight to the NFL after one year. Instead, he had to play two more seasons, missing substatial time due to injuries in both seasons. Sure, his professional career so far has been nothing less than stellar, but I bet it will be at least two years shorter than it would've been had he come out after his freshman season. And don't even get me started on Maurice Clarett. A federal judge ruled that the NFL could not bar him from the 2004 draft, but that ruling was overturned by a higher court, and at that point Clarett could not go back to school. He never recovered, spent time in prison, and is now trying to keep his NFL dreams alive, playing in the UFL. I realize that Clarett really fucked himself with a bunch of stupid decisions, but I can't help but wonder if it would've turned out differently if he didn't have to sit out of football for those two years.
One might say that these manditory draft requirements could be seen as racist because players in both the NBA and NFL are predominantly black. And you don't see these same rules in the NHL, MLB, MLS, Nascar, or professional tennis, sports in which the players are not predominantly black. I don't see it that way, though. The real reason why these players are forced to go to college is because college basketball and college football are huge money makers. And that is the only reason. I can see why the colleges want to keep the players as long as possible, but I never understand why the NBA and NFL go along with it too. I guess they must have their reasons too.
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