They said it couldn’t be done.  No team starting all underclassmen and dominated by Frosh Stars could win a National Title.  Carmelo Anthony was a fluke.  He had Senior Leadership.

Others said that if Kentucky won with this “Pro” laden team that it would be a Collegiate apocalypse.

Funny, no one thinks it’s the end of the world when (predominantly) white guys leave College early for careers at Google, Microsoft or Apple.

Does Mark Emmert think of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as One and Doners?

I don’t understand all of the lamentations and gnashing of teeth by the die hard traditionalists.  Students attend University to prepare them for a career.  The NBA is a career for these guys.  If a computer geek or a mathematician is recruited out of school for his talents, no one complains.  I guess that’s a more valid career path than the NBA or NFL.  I don’t see it that way.  Apparently, others do.

John Calipari takes talented athletes and prepares them for the professional world.  His kids go on to earn accolades and awards at the next level.  Is that not what a good college professor is supposed to do for his students?  Calipari develops their talents into marketable skills.  Skills that enable them to enter the marketplace of their profession with an advantage over students who learn the game from other coaches.

Because Cal does this and does so unapologetically, he’s a smarmy, greasy salesman.  I think it makes him an honest broker of future marketability for kids whose talent lies in the sport of basketball.  He’s honest.  He says come play with me and I’ll teach you how to excel at the college level and prepare you for the Professional level.  What is wrong with that?  Should he be like Coach K and demand that kids delay their professional debut even though they are ready to enter their chosen field of endeavor.  That would be the definition of smarmy and greasy to me.  Coach K is righteously indignant when a kid goes Pro before he gives his permission.  Coach Cal informs his men of their options and advises them based on the best information available at the time.

The NCAA makes millions off of these kids.  It is a matter of course that the NCAA wants to maximize the potential pay off on the marketability of the “student-athlete.”  The NCAA is not interested in what’s right for the Athlete.  The NCAA is interested in making more money by marketing big time Collegiate Star Athletes.  That’s the real concern behind the laments and the teeth gnashing.

If an Athlete is ready to go Pro, there should be no more reason to hold him back than there was reason to hold back Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.  The NCAA and their silly NBA Draft deadlines are full of stale, last century thought processes.  These people and their media instigators need to join the present.

Anthony Davis is ready to go Pro.  If he stays at UK for one more year, it’s a decision that the NCAA should respect.  If Anthony Davis decides to enter the NBA Draft after one year, the NCAA should give it no more thought than if a Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or a Mark Zuckerburg leaves school to start a business.  It’s the same thing.

Risk/Reward.  There is too much risk in staying in College for an Athlete like Anthony Davis.  He’s ready.  The NBA thinks he’s ready.  The NBA is his prospective employer.  They know whether or not they wish to hire an Athlete or not.  It’s a decision between the employer and the potential employee.  The NCAA should back out of it.

In my opinion, a player should be able to enter the draft, attend the draft camps at NBA expense and, if that player is not drafted, he should be able to re-enter college as a Student Athlete.  That is exactly what these guys are.  They are student ATHLETEs.  They are studying under a Coach who is teaching/coaching them on the principles and skills of entering into a Professional Career as an ATHLETE in the NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS or any of a multitude of other sports.  The NBA Draft should be treated as an internship.  Nothing more and nothing less.

A law student interns.  A medical student interns.  Business Management Majors intern.  Some of these students have paid internships.  Some of the brighter and more talented students enter into internships that have perks.  Many of these students who take these internships are on scholarships.  If a law student takes an internship with a prestigious Law Firm, they aren’t ripped off of scholarship status.  That internship is seen as a positive.  Conversely, if a Student on an Athletic Scholarship enters the NBA Draft and attends Draft Camps or Skill Camps, they’re punished for doing so.

National Collegiate Athletic Association.  They are supposed to be helping these kids enter into their chosen Profession in the most advantageous position possible.  That’s not what they do, though.  The NCAA does everything in it’s power to keep it’s Students AWAY from their Profession of choice.  They do their best to make a student ATHLETE enter into his/her chosen Profession as blind as possible.  The NCAA attempts to bully student ATHLETEs into staying in school so that the NCAA can profit from their presence and skill sets.  Instead of joining these kids in their sojourn from student to Professional, the NCAA sets out to do it’s best to keep them blind and distanced from their chosen profession.

The NCAA should encourage kids to enter into agreements with Agents so that their student ATHLETES can benefit from persons who know the business.  Instead, the NCAA drives agents underground and keeps it’s student ATHLETES from learning the details of the business until moments before they enter into their chosen careers.  This is a ridiculous standard.  A ridiculous procedure.  The NCAA is part of the problem in setting these kids up for failure when they finally enter the Professional World of Athletics.

Kentucky just made the witch hunt a little harder, though.  Calipari embraces the system.  Instead of tying blinders around his kids eyes, he tries to enlighten them as to the practices and standards of the Profession to which they aspire.  For this, he is vilified.  He’s hated.  He’s hunted.

It’s a ridiculous circus is the NCAA.  A grand joke.  All for the love of profit.  And they call Calipari dirty.  Get real.  The NCAA is the problem.