KRIEGER: No lack of manure in NBA's 'farm system'

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, May 12, 2008

Brace yourself for another shocking sports scandal. Bet you never saw this one coming.

Kelly Naqi of "The Worldwide Leader" broke the story that O.J. Mayo, a one-year wonder at Southern Cal now headed for the June 26 NBA draft, got something like $30,000 worth of cash and gifts during the past four years from a runner representing one of pro basketball's best-known agents, Bill Duffy.

The journalism is solid, coming from the one corner of ESPN that still cares about such things, Outside the Lines.

But is anybody surprised? Anybody?

Consider this: If Mayo had been permitted to jump directly from high school to the NBA, as LeBron James did five years ago, he would have made something in excess of $1 million this season, depending on where he was drafted.

Unfortunately for Mayo, the association decided it didn't like baby-sitting kids just out of high school. And basketball, unlike baseball and hockey, had no place to store them until they were ready. Colleges and universities have always been basketball's farm system.

They're a really nice farm system from the NBA's point of view, too. For one thing, they're free. None of those pesky facility and player costs hockey and baseball put up with in their player-development systems.

It's a pretty good deal for the schools, too. They get to run revenue-producing, quasi-professional sports teams, which draw big crowds and bigger TV-rights fees. And by calling the players "student- athletes," they don't have to pay them a dime. The value of a college education is supposed to make them even.

Players jumping directly from high school to the pros threatened this sweet little deal. So, two years ago, the NBA established a minimum age of 19. A kid can go pro in baseball or hockey straight out of high school. A kid can go pro in tennis straight out of grammar school.

The effect of the 19-year-old age limit was to require a single year of college for most high school seniors. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski was just one of the college coaches who thought this was worse for university athletic programs than letting basketball prodigies skip college altogether.

For the first time, the NBA was giving the colleges an explicit role as a one-year way station, a holding pen for prospective pro ball- players whose sole reason for attending was to satisfy the NBA's age requirement. Calling these kids student-athletes and suggesting they were pursuing degrees and engaging in extracurricular sports along the way was now, more clearly than ever, a lie.

Duffy and every other agent who represent basketball players have known that Mayo would be a pro, and probably a really good one, since he was 14. That's how the system works now. Shoe company reps, agents and their runners blanket the youth summer leagues and all-star games to get their hooks into young stars and their future cash flows early.

Many of the kids come out of poverty. The NCAA says they cannot take a nickel until they go pro, and the NBA says they can't go pro until they're 19. Shoe reps and agents rolling in money want to create a bond with these kids. You tell me what's going to happen.

Now, of course, the NCAA is shocked to hear ESPN's report on Mayo. It plans to investigate forthwith. Already, there are high-pitched calls for it to impose its death penalty on Southern Cal athletics, which faced similar allegations about Reggie Bush, the football player.

This, too, ignores the reality of the system the NCAA has enabled for too long. Most of the University of Southern California is an academic institution. A small part of it, the part that runs its football and men's basketball programs, is effectively a pro sports organization. In this, it is little different from dozens of other Division I universities.

Now, too, will come the condemnations of Mayo. The rules say he must take a vow of continuing poverty despite the fact that millions of people nationwide tune in to watch him play basketball. And for what? The amateur athletic ideal? That wasn't Mayo's idea. He'd be a pro already, if the land of the free would let him.

Meanwhile, NBA commissioner David Stern likes his age limit so much that he wants to raise it to 20. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggests raising it to 22.

So, for the convenience of both the NBA and NCAA, young players will continue to be required to play for free in the NBA's farm system, otherwise known as American higher education.

Stern claims he and NCAA president Myles Brand plan to study the whole sordid system, from the summer leagues on up, to see what might be done about it. Until something comes of that, you can expect the Reggie Bushes and O.J. Mayos of the world to continue to take the blame for a corrupt system built on a lie.

• May 13, 2008

  4:18 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  flybys writes:

  It's truly easy to drop a large garbage bag of blame on the doorstep of the league office of the NBA for the O.J. Mayo mess when in reality this is much more about Mayo's continuing pattern of poor decision making. Who will be to blame next when he attracts more embarrassment to himself when some foolish team selects him in the draft come June?

  The facts are that Mayo, regardless of his desire or lack of it to attend college, was given a scholarship to improve his life. He chose a while back, financial condition immaterial, to accept gifts. He and his family should have known, from the first gift on, that what they were doing, no matter whether it was legal or not, was sketchy and not moral.

  Agents are seductive temptresses, sort of like legal drug dealers and just because they are dressed well doesn't make them people you should associate with. They are seeking souls down at the crossroads.

  The NCAA and the NBA have a lot of self-serving, and illogical rules but this mess is Mayo, not the two monoliths getting fingered.

  How about a little accountability for those who believe in entitlement.

• May 13, 2008

  8:41 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Broncosfan75 writes:

  The problem here is that there are no limits of Mayo's that the two systems are trying to take advantage of. Neither Division I colleges nor the NBA really care about this problem and want to ignore it as much as possible. Division I schools only really care if one of them is getting an unfair advantage in recruiting the next big name and the NBA doesn't have any problem with people being paid for their skills. It is this corrupt system that is to blame and without fixing it there will be another kid next year blamed as a scapegoat.

• May 13, 2008

  9:23 a.m.

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  misterbigge writes:

  flybys and all others who blame Mayo should spend about 2 days in his shoes and then criticise him. How many of us would say no if we were raised in poverty and hopelessness then met someone who wanted to shower money on us to use our talent? Honest answer, none of us including flybys. It's a disgrace that everyone benefits from the talents of 'college' athletes except the athletes themselves. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Instead of scholarships, athletes should be paid up front and in the open. They should have a minimum amount of college involvement, either classes or service. The colleges would pay players $50,000 per year. Anyone caught taking more money would lose their first year in the NBA after being drafted. Agents or shoe companies that got caught would have to run public service announcements during NBA games apologizing for breaking the law. Just stop the hypocrasy.

• May 13, 2008

  10:08 a.m.

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  Keno33 writes:

  the NBA is over, body dead but the head don't know it.

• May 13, 2008

  11:21 a.m.

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  OhBrother writes:

  Great Article! people like flyby don't get the major point that it is fine to do this in hockey and baseball, why such a big deal for basketball and football? Take away free ride sports scolarships, pay the kids and make them pay to go to school. why is it not a problem for hockey or baseball players to come straight out of high school?

• May 13, 2008

  12:28 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  akeheren writes:

  So instead of improving academic facilities and keeping tuition at a less-than-exorbitant rate for the rest of us college students, you would rather the universities PAY FIFTY GRAND A YEAR to every kid with a nice jump shot? Along with all the other preferential treatment they receive (exclusive housing, eating, and workout facilities, high school-level classes, etc.)? Are they gonna pay for my textbooks or something?

• May 13, 2008

  1:10 p.m.

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  sersam writes:

  Hockey and Baseball ? How about Girl's Golf ? Soccer ? "Professional" child actors ? To me, it is one more example of kids being abused by adults. I will be lucky to earn a million in my whole working life. We had a Rockies baseball player die at a very young age unexpectedly - it could happen to anyone. One doesn't know how long one's working career will be and if it comes to someone at a young age, they should be helped to pursue it instead of having the adult leaders "steal it away" from them.

• May 13, 2008

  2:34 p.m.

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  ramanboy33 writes:

  Disband varsity athletics at Universities. There shouldn't be any place for someone at an academic institution if he or she isn't seeking a degree (or qualified to do so). The NBA and the NFL should pay for and run their own developmental leagues where an aspiring professional athlete can go after high school. If someone wants to be a true "student-athlete" he or she can join the intercollegiate sports club team.

• May 13, 2008

  4:18 p.m.

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  nuggetsteve23 writes:

  I think they should stop blaming the kids, ASK yourself why is their a limit on the black dominated sports ? There is no limit on Tennis Golf Baseball Hockey Soccer and look at the business world , ie dougie howser :) there is no age requirment on lawyers doctors engineers What right Does anyone have to say when a kid can earn money, Seems to be a little discrimantion going on

• May 13, 2008

  5:47 p.m.

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  mt writes:

  Wow some people can find racism in anything. Baseball and soccer are both minority dominated sports. Guess you just couldn't find a way to tie them into your racism rant. Only one in about 100,000 kids get to play pro sports but you think that the white man is trying to opress the black man by making them wait a few years before they are mature enough to handle the responsibility of the money. Better call Jesse Jackson and alert him. Get a life this has nothing to do with race. People like you make me sick! (and by saying "people like you" I am not talking about a certain race since I do not know what race you are, I just mean people who think like you.) phew, almost opened up a whole new can of worms!

• May 14, 2008

  1:15 a.m.

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  carryBIGstick writes:

  Outstanding article!! I also question why a coach can earn hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars coaching "student athletes" and the "student athlete" can't get $30k. I stopped paying attention to college sports because of this double-standard.
  I also will never understand why it's ok for an 18 year old kid to join the military, be convicted of an adult crime, but can't play a professional sport for money? ( or drink a beer for that matter)
  Perhaps that athletic directors of these schools who made huge amounts of money should kick some of that cash over to those student athletes who busted their asses so those people can cash those checks.