Ballers vs. Students????
- Thread starter LINY89
- Start date
Ridiculous? Look at these basketball players coming in to Big East, ACC, and SEC schools. Many of them are kids who grew up in the hood playing basketball, not caring about school. These are NOT student athletes...they are athlete athletes. The regulations operate under the assumption that they are at SJ for school too and not just basketball but that's false. It's really for their shot at the NBA or a pro career overseas. When you have regulations that imply they are both students and athletes, you will continue to see so many of these kids have a ton of difficulty getting cleared, and it screws them, the college, their team, their coach, their fans, etc. Even at Marist which is a bad DI basketball mid major, the basketball players were NEVER in class, or they went but daydreamed. Let's be real here...they are there to play basketball for the school, not make dean's list. And you can name me a few players who are also very committed students, but we both know they are the exception not the rule. Strict academic regulations are dumb when they aren't students to begin with.
Everybody isn't going to the NBA, whether they aspire to or not. It's true that most are there to play basketball for the school, but there is also life after basketball. Believe it or not, there are some kids who know that to be case and aspire to garner their degree, whether they are on the dean's list or not. Oh! By the way, there are also some kids who are very capable of making the dean's list.
I understand what you're attempting to deliver, but your description of the situation is too far in left field, IMO. I still believe the "ballers" still should be held, to some degree, to perform in the classroom. Once again, everybody isn't so lucky to be able to play pro ball.
ErickTheRed
Member
Lets face it although i agree with MJ, if you look at our guys from a few years ago most are playing for decent money overseas or going to make it on a NBA roster.... Justin, Justin Brownlee, Dwight, DJ and Paris. The first option for these guys seems to be to play while they are young before hanging it up( voluntarily or forced to.) and who could blame them. Hopefully in most cases they have a fallback option of a college degree and some connections made while in school. I look at Tarik Turner he could of played overseas but he went to work on wall st for awhile and now has settled in nicely on sny.
Class of 72
Active member
Why would Kimani list him as 2013?
Was it deliberate?
There are redmen dot comers here with closer ties to the players and current happenings. I would think they would have clarified the situation if there was a real issue......ya' think?
A basketball career is not forever. All of he individuals that you mentioned have their degrees so that when they are finished playing, they are able to enter the workforce in some capacity. One statistic that sticks in my mind is that 65% of professional basketball players are broke within five years after retirement.
St. Johns has done very well in ensuring that most of our players receive their degree.
Beautiful, an even more ridiculous reply; the very attitude from "the college, their team, their coach, their fans, etc" that makes "ballers" from "the hood" not care about school. For every "baller" who makes a living playing basketball their are thousands who go back to "the hood" with no future because of this type of inane reasoning. While I understand there is plenty of money to be made by everyone but the players in college basketball, schools should not be minor leagues.
STJClass_2013
Member
Joe you aren't trying to help anyone. You just get upset these kids don't qualify and you get mad at the NCAA? Its these kids and their parents and all the rest of the teachers that push them through. If they were held to the same standard throughout high school it wouldn't be a problem. 60 players get drafted to the NBA from the NCAA and overseas every year. Not everyone is going to be a baller for the rest of their life. This gives them a chance to get their degree.http://www.valueofadegree.com/video-gallery/kareem-abdul-jabbar/
Joe you don't want what is better for these players/students. You don't know them or where they came from you dont know about the hood and what its like. Moe Harkless was doing fine in school before he left for the draft he is an intelligent kid from Southside Jamaica. Let the NCAA do what it has to do because they will always look out for the best interest of the player/students. In the long run you need a degree. One game, one bad injury you can be out for the rest of your life. That is why you don't let kids that don't have the credits qualify. For their own benefit.
Joe you don't want what is better for these players/students. You don't know them or where they came from you dont know about the hood and what its like. Moe Harkless was doing fine in school before he left for the draft he is an intelligent kid from Southside Jamaica. Let the NCAA do what it has to do because they will always look out for the best interest of the player/students. In the long run you need a degree. One game, one bad injury you can be out for the rest of your life. That is why you don't let kids that don't have the credits qualify. For their own benefit.
Class of 72
Active member
Here is a sad statistic for Joey boy-------there are roughly 4000 D1 college basketballs players.......... excluding foreign players, fewer than 60 will be drafted by NBA teams. 98% will never hear their names called.
One thing I've always done is called a spade a spade and now is no different. There is a huge misunderstanding here as to what's right vs. what actually happens. Too many of you are talking based on a perfect utopian society. Is getting a college degree very important? Absolutely. 100%. Should grades be important? Yes. But let's be real...total guess here but I'd confidently bet that 75% of major conference DI athletes in football and basketball would never have gotten into their schools as mere academics. Why act like grades matter when they really don't at the end of the day? Remember Binghamton a few years ago? They sold their souls to make the NCAA tourney. They took in total thugs who didn't give a rat's you know what about school. How did they get into Binghamton? Binghamton is a tough school to get into if you aren't an athlete. So I go back to this...why bother? Some big time school will always take the chance on the kid from the hood with awful grades but major athletic upside. DI athletes are taught through experience that they are above academics in schools. They constantly get breaks, more liberal grading, more slack, certain specially designated study areas and sections of libraries, and they are always excused from class when a major athletic event comes up. After all of that, you turn around and expect these ATHLETES to really truly care about their GPA? Please. Value is placed on athletics, not GPA for athletes in power conferences...so we might as well just pay them to play the sport and be strictly athletes only. If I'm so wrong, then where does the popular stereotype of the "dumb jock" in a big time college never going to class come from? In a perfect world, yes most big time athletes would care about academics just as much as their sports, but this is not a perfect world and they are pseudo-students at best. Their primary function is to play sports.
I think you are making very general statements with this post. Kids like Maurice Harkless are from the " hood" and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that he isn't a thug. You maybe right in some cases.. But it's a little unecessary considering you in all likelihood are not from the " hood". I am from the hood and turned out just fine.
. I see the point you are trying to make.. Just think you are going about it in the wrong way.simplyred, you beat me to the punch! After reading Joe3's latest post, I was thinking the exact same thing: one couldn't ask for a more ironic opening sentence than the one he gave us. And to think, we still have another four months or so to go before the season starts.