The NCAA News - News and Features

December 1, 1997

Exploitation or opportunity?

Reaction to CBA's plan to draft high-school athletes depends on perspective

BY STEPHEN R. HAGWELL
STAFF WRITER

As a member of three NCAA Division I basketball championship teams at the University of California, Los Angeles, Steve Patterson spent a considerable amount of time from 1969 to 1971 filling the lane for legendary coach UCLA coach John Wooden.

Nearly three decades later, Patterson, as commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), is attempting to fill what he sees as a void in the sport of basketball.

Firm in the belief that the current NCAA and National Basketball Association (NBA) structures exclude a number of athletes interested in pursuing a career in professional basketball, Patterson wants to provide another option.

To achieve that goal, Patterson has submitted a proposal to CBA owners to expand the league's draft to include college underclassmen and high-school seniors.

The proposal would allow the league's nine teams to draft high-school players who have completed their senior year, as well as collegiate underclassmen who are considering leaving school early in favor of a professional basketball career.

The official developmental league of the NBA, the CBA currently limits its draft to players who have renounced their collegiate eligibility and to those whose collegiate class has already graduated. That has been its policy since its inception 52 years ago as the Eastern Basketball League.

Patterson estimates that the CBA proposal, if adopted, would affect fewer than 100 players.

"What we want to do is be an option," said Patterson, former men's basketball coach at Arizona State University. "We want to provide another level of opportunity that currently does not exist. We are not interested in creating false expectations. We are not interested in jeopardizing anyone's college eligibility in any way, shape or form. We simply are responding to what we believe is a need in the marketplace."

Coaches' leader expresses concerns

But the CBA proposal concerns many within the collegiate basketball community.

While acknowledging the need for additional opportunities, Mike Jarvis, men's basketball coach at George Washington University and president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, fears the CBA proposal will give legitimacy to a view held by many young students that athletics is more important than education.

"What (Steve Patterson) is saying is right, but it also is wrong," Jarvis said. "What he's saying basically has merit. But what happens is, if you make it easy for people and give them what they would think is the easier road -- that would be the road of playing as opposed to studying and playing -- they're going to take the road to playing. And the majority of kids who are going to take that road are the kids who need to go to school the most, primarily poor kids who are not doing well in school or have no ambition to get a college education.

"What (this plan) does is provide an easy way out for disadvantaged kids who happen to have athletic ability. It gives kids false hope that they can have a career in the NBA.

"What they aren't being told is that 99 percent of them are not going to make the NBA. They're not being told that they're not going to have anything. They're not going to have a pro career, and they're not going to have an education or the necessary training to do something else.

"It simply perpetuates an awful problem that exists in our country."

Billy Donovan, men's basketball coach at the University of Florida and a former CBA player, concurs. He contends that the proposal will give young athletes false expectations of attaining a career in the NBA -- expectations that many will find unattainable.

"I don't know what the CBA is going to be able to offer a kid, but obviously the main goal is to get to the NBA," said Donovan, who spent two years in the league. "By taking the CBA route, a kid isn't guaranteed a chance to get to the NBA.

"What I think is going to happen is you're going to see a lot of kids take this chance and in the end wind up with nothing.

"Someone needs to sit down with these kids and explain to them how important it is for them to get an education. Even if they do get to the NBA, they're not guaranteed that they'll be paid millions of dollars. These kids have to have something to fall back on. They need to get their education."

CBA proposes continuing education

Patterson said the criticisms are unwarranted. He states that the CBA plan would include provisions to provide for players' continuing education. He said that the league is considering options such as putting a portion of players' salaries in an education fund; developing relationships with community colleges so underclassmen can work on their degrees while playing; and development of a life-skills program.

Patterson added that what the CBA is considering is similar to systems that the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball and NBA have used for years. The NHL, Major League Baseball and NBA each allow teams to draft high-school seniors and collegiate underclassmen.

Recently, Major League Soccer (MLS) and the U.S. Soccer Federation unveiled a similar plan, an initiative dubbed "Project 40," intended to recruit elite soccer players.

"What we're proposing is not unlike the current systems in baseball and hockey, which have existed for decades," Patterson said. "Why isn't there the same hue and cry over the lives of the young men who are being destroyed by minor-league baseball or hockey? There's a lot of inconsistency.

"I think what has been achieved in hockey and baseball, in economic terms, is an equilibrium. Certain players come in and play for years and move on to the pros or don't. Certain players go directly from high school to the pros. The system seems to be working reasonably well.

"Probably the most significant difference is the stakes that are involved with this. College basketball has achieved such significant visibility and revenue that there is a perception -- I think it's a false perception -- that this will somehow jeopardize that. And anything that could be perceived as threatening -- that is somehow being tainted as heretical. I understand it, but it isn't heretical. It's rational."

Jarvis finds the comparison to baseball disturbing.

"To me, that's a step backwards if you start comparing us with baseball and what we do as it relates to basketball," he said. "The colleges have never been the minor-league system for baseball, and they're still not.

"Most of the kids who play minor-league baseball, I think, are just out of high school. Just think of the hundreds of thousands of kids who have never gone to college because they're in minor-league baseball, and have never made the major leagues. At least we've been educating the majority of our kids.

"I would hope that we would never equate ourselves with a sport that historically has not been about education."

Current system 'discriminates'

Patterson contends that the CBA is considering the proposal because the current system has unfairly locked young men 18 to 22 years old out of a chance to earn a living in professional basketball. He also acknowledges that the recent increase in the number of young athletes seeking a career in professional basketball has forced the CBA to review its position.

In the last four years, 73 high-school seniors and collegiate underclassmen have declared for the NBA draft. Of those 73 players, 22 were not drafted by NBA teams.

In September, the CBA received national attention when Connecticut Pride owner Brian Foley offered highly touted high-school basketball standout Lamar Odom a one-year, $100,000 contract. Odom, who originally committed to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but did not meet NCAA initial-eligibility requirements, declined the offer. He currently is enrolled at the University of Rhode Island, but is not eligible to play basketball.

"The current system actually discriminates against a certain class of young people because conventional wisdom is that there are no other opportunities than the NCAA or NBA," Patterson said. "Those options are quite limited.

"The CBA should be another option for those who don't have the academic qualifications, who are unhappy with the university system, or those with financial reasons who need money now."

Commissioners' views vary

Thomas C. Hansen, commissioner of the Pacific-10 Conference, believes the CBA proposal has merit.

"I find a lot of it attractive," Hansen said. "I am concerned about 18-year-old people becoming professional athletes, but at the same time there are some young people out there who are not interested in a college education, and there ought to be a place for them to go to improve their skills to become professional athletes, other than college athletics programs.

"At this point, there's quite a bit of pressure on colleges to take young people because it's the only avenue in basketball and football, and it really shouldn't be. I think the professional leagues have been negligent in not having another course. I think there should be another choice, another alternative."

Charles S. Harris, commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and a member of NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee, doesn't dispute the need for additional opportunities, nor does he contend that the current system is without flaws. However, he believes that the CBA plan will add to rather than diminish those flaws by giving young athletes more incentive to be more apathetic about education.

Harris fears that many young athletes will view the CBA as a road to a high-paying career in the NBA, only to find instead a low-paying detour leading to failure.

On average, CBA teams spend approximately $250,000 annually on players' salaries and travel expenses. Players' salaries range from $25,000 to $100,000, with the average player earning $30,000.

"What I'm seeing is guys getting paid $30,000. Thirty thousand dollars isn't going to take you very far," Harris said.

"I don't know what the career span of the average CBA player is, but it strikes me that suddenly at age 23 or 24, you've completed your run in the CBA. It's been pretty much confirmed that you aren't the next Michael Jordan and now, what you have are unpolished skills academically that were basically truncated at the high-school level, and you're unemployed. And you certainly don't have a substantial pot of money to go to to tide you over for the next 40 years.

"My concern is that if we're not careful with this kind of approach, we simply have developed another vehicle whereby we can generate another universe of expendable commodities who at age 24 or 25 are just that."

Patterson understands the concern, but said the CBA is taking the necessary steps to provide for the welfare of those athletes who may opt for a career in professional basketball. He cited the continuing-education program as an example.

Patterson added that the CBA is interested not in misleading young athletes, but rather presenting clearly the opportunities that the league has to offer.

"We believe the CBA can be and should be an element in the mix that can be beneficial to all parties," Patterson said. "I'm very interested in us working with the NCAA, the NABC and players to be an alternative for a relatively small number.

"I think the marketplace will support that."