A Plea To NBA Commissioner David Stern

Dear Mr. Stern,

As you oversee the annual NBA Lottery shown in Prime Time during halftime of the Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons Eastern Conference finals this week, for the sake of college basetball programs all over the nation, please reconsider your rule that you need a year of college before going for the big bucks in the NBA.

Nearly every profession requires that you have some college and most require that you have a college degree. But asking a high school kid who may be talented enough to play in the NBA to go to college and waste the time of the coaches, teammates and college instructors is a bit much. That player has one thing and one thing only on his mind, and it’s not how he’ll do on that freshman chemistry midterm or if he ran a final spell check on that English term paper – it’s the NBA and how much money he’s going to make.

He’s already made plans. Chances are he’s already got an agent in mind who’s telling him that he can make him a top 10 pick and make him bajillions of dollars if said player signs with him and his agency on the dotted line.

Now all that player needs is some money for some new threads and a car to look the part of an NBA Lottery pick at the age as young as 17. The agency that’s looking to sign him may give him a little something under the table through a second or third party to get him through that tough freshman season where he has to live in a crowded dorm and eat subpar food in the cafeteria.

The only thing here is that accepting at chump change and other gifts is illegal! If may be done quietely, but someone is going to get suspicious about a freshman who came from a single parent home in the inner city suddenly driving around in a car that cost as much as a year’s tutition at the college he’s attending.

Said player finishes his one and only season and declares for the draft almost immediately after the final whistle blows. He’s selected in the top 10 in the draft and is an instant millionaire and ESPN highlight.

Meanwhile, the school he just dumped is being investigated by the NCAA and conference from which he came from for allegedly accepting money and for them allegedely not knowing about it. If found guilty they and the players who had nothing to with the whole thing lose everything from scholarships to postseason appearances and a scholarship that could have gone to a player who really puts “student” ahead of “student athlete.”

So Commissioner Stern, I’m pleading with you to consider either letting players into the draft out of high school or make them stay in college for more than one year. The worst that can happen is that they’re not picked in the draft, they go to college and stay long enough that they might actually value the college experience and free education.

Thanks so much Commissioner Stern for your time.

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