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As college basketball finds itself mired in scandal, with allegations of illegal payments to student athletes flying around, one man who famously skipped the collegiate system has had his say.
LeBron James opted to go straight to the NBA after high school and said he wasn’t surprised to hear of the claims and had withering words for college sports’ governing body, the NCAA. “Kids getting paid is nothing new under the sun,” the three-time NBA champion told ESPN. “The NCAA is corrupt, we know that. Sorry, it’s going to make headlines, but it’s corrupt.”
College athletes aren’t supposed to be paid but with many of them coming from poor backgrounds, James dismissed the notion that the relationship between students and institutions is a fair one.
“Obviously, I’ve never been a part of it, so I don’t know all the ins and outs about it. I don’t know all the rules and regulations about it, but I do know what five-star athletes bring to a campus, both in basketball and football,” James said. “I know how much these college coaches get paid. I know how much these colleges are gaining off these kids ... I’ve always heard the narrative that they get a free education, but you guys are not bringing me on campus to get an education, you guys are bringing me on it to help you get to a Final Four or to a national championship, so it’s just a weird thing.”
James’s phenomenal talent meant he was able to adjust quickly to the NBA while still a teenager but he acknowledged some players may need more time to learn their craft. He suggested one solution could be to expand the G-League, the closest the NBA has to a minor league system with 26 teams attached to individual franchises.
“I know for us as an NBA, we have to shore up our G-League, continue to expand our G-League and basically what it is, it’s like our farm league in baseball,” said the 14-time All-Star. “I just looked at it like the farm league like in baseball or you look at pros overseas. Some of those guys get signed at 14, but they get put into this farm system where they’re able to grow and be around other professionals for three or four years. Then when they’re ready they hit the national team or when they’re ready they become a pro. So I think us, we have to kind of really figure that out, how we can do that.”
From his own standpoint, James said he had no regrets about going straight to the NBA. “Me and my mom was poor I’ll tell you that and they expected me to step foot on a college campus and not to go to the NBA? We weren’t going to be poor for long, I’ll tell you that. That’s a fact.”
(GUARDIAN)
