the other side of this is that when you are traveling your nut is bigger. So $100k (assuming you make that much) may sound like a lot to a 19 year old, figure in your expenses and it may not be. Play in Korea and make $100k and you won't even be able to get a tiny apartment (to RENT) without a huge down payment. Heck in Silicon Valley you have $100k annual and you are eating ramen every night.
Everyone talks about not begrudging kids from making a paycheck but a paycheck is there for the rest of your life and most of these kids that are the rare exceptions to make a big paycheck are too immature to hold on to it. For most playing overseas won't get them enough income to change their life or their extended families. College is a good life and 4 years to live in a bubble of fun, learning and security. You can grow and become a better version of yourself. Professional is dog eat dog forever no turning back. You have kids and the NCAA is screwing you. OK go get a paycheck. If you don't, enjoy college life for as long as you can.
Just to point out that most overseas professional teams provide room and some if not all board expenses in addition to salary.
And in most cases, the club will offset a player's taxes as well, so his salary would essentially be tax-free.
I do believe that Lovett would be able to get a contract around 200k in Europe. I can't fault him whatsoever if he chooses to go get his money. Fact of the matter is, 100k-200k is worth much more than the value of SJU tuition. As a basketball period he has a short period of time to cash in on his talents, and if his family isn't in a great financial situation you can't fault him one bit for wanting to support them. He can go make 6-figures in Europe and save a bit of that money each year and go back to school to get his degree once his playing career is over.
In fact, more and more schools are starting to pledge lifetime scholarships for athletes (its a good recruiting tool). Selfishly I want him to come back but can't at all fault the kid if he wants to go make some actual money which exceeds the value he's getting at SJU.
You qualified "tuition" I'd still say that your college time is a special one that can't be replaced even with some bling and relatively insignificant cash so I think the value proposition is definitely debatable especially in the reality of where most professional athletes end up no matter how much money they make. This from someone that grew up poor OG latchkey kid, and started working when I was 9 years old all the way through high school and 4 years at St Johns. Aside from that, pretty easy to burn through that kind of money especially living abroad and if you have a posse leaching off you.
We just make all of these rational arguments of how college life is so good, and they aren't incorrect. If I had to guess, for a kid who has had academic problems, he may not have a high interest in cracking the books AND playing college bball without a salary. I couldn't imagine trying to play a demanding D1 sport like bball that spans most of 2 semesters AND have to do school work. When I worked at SJU my office was in the Academic Computing Lab. Most basketball players came in at the end of the semester with an entire semester's work of mandatory assignments that had to be handed in. Usually they asked student workers to give them lots of assistance completing them. In my time working there, only one ball player actually came in regularly to do his assignments on his own during the school year.
Yes, 100K for those of us that know doesn't go far. For kids who sometimes come from a life of public assistance, or a single parent who earns far less than that, It sounds like and to some extent is, a fortune. But being a professional basketball player is some far flung exotic place in Europe, Asia, or South America sounds like a really cool deal to kids who have grown up poor. And it is. I do agree that a college degree changes the trajectory for any kid, so for that alone I hope he stays.
I think of guys like Reggie Carter, Frank Gilroy, George Johnson, Rudy Wright, Charles Minlend at their commencements. I saw one or two of them in cap and gown. I think of D'Angelo, Pointer, Greene, and that group at their commencement and can only imagine their ear to ear grins at earning their degrees. I actually feel good for them that there was, is, and will be a better life after basketball partly because of that degree. I hope Lovett is in that group - not for the points and wins he would provide for us along the way, but for him and his family.
