Derrick Rose is currently at the center of NCAA investigation into his academic eligibilty at Memphis.

According to the Chicago-Sun Times, his high school grades were even altered to help him stay academically eligible.

The investigation has once again brought attention to the NBA’s age regulation rule, in which players have to be at least 19 years old in order to play professional basketball.

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports, asks: “Why the heck did he have to take [the SAT test]  in the first place?”

He makes a good point. Rose could have avoided this scandal altogether if he had simply been able to jump directly to the NBA from high school instead.

As Wetzel argues effectively:

“No one cared when Danica Patrick went pro as a race car driver at 16. No one tried to prevent Shawn Johnson from winning an Olympic gold at the same age or Miley Cyrus from making millions singing and acting with her dad even younger than that. And no one ever required them to recognize analogies before doing so. So why do we make Derrick Rose?”

Why, indeed.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Derrick Rose’s Reputation At Risk

yawn

I stayed up to watch the game because the Boston Celtics put on the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. It was amazing to watch (and I was watching and blogging at the same time). I read on Yahoo! Sports this a.m. (a brilliant column by Dan Wetzel) that Paul Pierce came in the locker room at halftime and pretty much said to Doc Rivers, “Give me Kobe.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Pierce played a gutsy second half with aggressive defense on Kobe Bryant (who was so frustrated that he walked off the court with three seconds left in the game). He played so aggressively, in fact, that by the end of the game he could have collapsed in a pool of exhaustion. He showed more heart in the second half than the entire Lakers basketball team. And so the Celtics won. This coming Sunday, Father’s Day, I predict that they will win the series.

On to football.

This one is happening in my own backyard and I’ve been following the story quite closely since I work at the Buffalo News. It’s hard to avoid.

Marshawn Lynch was apparently involved in a hit and run incident a couple of weeks ago, only he’s been avoiding the police investigators like the plague. They know that he was in the car, and now they know that he was driving. Was he intoxicated? That is the question.

I was disappointed when this story broke because I was under the impression that Lynch was one of the “good guys.” But it’s now coming out that he’s been involved in numerous automobile incidents since he’s been in Buffalo and has not cooperated with the police on any of them. I know Lynch is a young guy, but he’s got to understand that he’s not above the law. And the Bills organization is handling this in the wrong way. Instead of saying, “Be a man, be responsible and go deal with this,” they are protecting him as if he has done nothing wrong.

As a result, subpoenas have been handed out to three other players. Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson may also be required to appear before the grand jury next Friday to give a statement. This thing is turning into a tumbling snowball that just keeps on getting bigger.

Come on Lynch. Step up and be the “good guy” you want all of us to believe you are. Take some responsibility for your actions. You’ll earn our respect that way, not by scoring touchdowns.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Celtics Win; Lynch Dodging Hit And Run Charge