Dick Weiss on College Basketball
NEW YORK—Villanova’s defending NCAA championship coach Jay Wright thinks the NBA G-League is on to something by offering a professional pathway to the NBA for select players coming out of high school beginning in 2019 that would pay them a one-year, $125,000 salary and give them an opportunity to sign endorsement deals with shoe companies before they enter the NBA draft..
Wright is an advocate of allowing players to go to the NBA directly out of high school, but he doesn’t think it will be possible until 2023 once the one-and-done rule disappears in a new collective bargaining agreement. That said, he would like the NBA to adopt a plan much like major league baseball in which players must spend three years in college if they don’t go pro out of high school.
“I would even take two, but I think if it was two years, you’re still going to have the same problem,’’ he said during Big East media day. “I think a guy would go for two years and say, ‘I could suck it up for two years and make some money on the side.’ If you need to go three years, you want to legitimately want to go to college.”
Wright is realistic enough to see college basketball isn’t for everyone.
Under the new plan, players will be eligible to sign the select deal if they turn 18 by Sept. 15 prior to the season they would spend in the G-League. In the past, G-League salaries, which ranged between $25,000 and $40,000, were not appealing to elite players. But this proposal will present options for players like 6-9 forward Darius Bazley, a McDonald’s All American who initially committed to Syracuse, but opted to the G-League before deciding to skip the NBA minor league all together because he felt the players are torn between playing for a winning team while at the same time promoting themselves. He is now working out by himself and signed a deal to work as an intern for New Balance for $1 million with hopes of being selected as a first round pick in 2019 draft.
“College basketball in our country needs the NBA to help us because the NBA’s the ultimate goal for these kids,’’ Wright said. “Whether they are playing youth basketball, high school basketball, college basketball, the NBA is their goal, so we needed their help and one of the problems is the fact there are guys that are forced to go to college that don’t want to go to college so the NBA can help with that problem and they have.’’
The last time the NBA allowed high school players to make the quantum leap was 2005. The NBA announced 49 high school players declared. Nine—wing forward Martell Webster of Seattle Prep (6), center Andrew Bynum of St. Joseph’s of Metuchen, N.J. (10), forward Gerald Green of Gulf Shores Academy in Houston (18), forward CJ Miles of Dallas Skyline (34), forward Ricky Sanchez of in Bradenton, Fla. IMG (35), guard Monta Ellis of Jackson, Miss. Lanier (40), guard Louis Williams of South Gwinnett, Ga. High (45), power forward Audray Blatche of South Kent, Conn. School (49) and forward Amir Johnson of Westchester, Calif. HS (56) —were drafted. The 7-0 Bynum won two titles with the Lakers and made an All- Star team in 2012. Sanchez never played in an NBA game.
It is doubtful the loss of a limited number of blue chip high school prospects in any one year will affect the outcome of the NCAA tournament.
The last three teams to win national championships—Villanova, Carolina and Villanova again—have been loaded with veteran talent, not one and dones. The Cats won in 2016 with a starting lineup that included two seniors and three juniors. Carolina won in 2017 with three seniors and two juniors. The Cats won last year with four juniors.
