Today I learned…
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John Beilein wants to make sweet, tender, love to this post.
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Yeah, I think ultimately the disconnect here that people have is that college for these players is not what college for us is like. For the average Joe, college is one of the most fun times of their life since they have the perfect blend of free time, lack of responsibility and access to fun things to do.
Basketball players are working a full-time job while in college in addition to class, unlike me who was sleeping in til noon and playing videogames during the day. So, when you take that into account, there isn’t a ton about playing in college that is going to outweigh the money.
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There’s only one rightful conclusion to this post. Nik Stauskas would be in the NBA if he had stayed 4 years
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I played college football. It was a full time job. I get all that. And I completely understand that some people would rather get paid to do a job rather than go to school, even if the conditions of that job are less than ideal.
What I’m saying is that there are plenty of people who would pick the opposite.
There is this perception among some that playing sports in college is a thing to be endured, that its one big pain in the ass and the quicker you can get out of it the better off you are. That may be true for some people, but its not for the vast majority of athletes.
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If you listen to most the former players who weren’t nba guys, they almost always say they would have rather played another year of college rather than a pro year abroad. Overseas gigs for the most part aren’t all their cracked up to be.
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I am not sure how long ago you played football in college, but even in the last 10 years, things have changed a lot.
You have media members like Jay Bilas, former pro athletes like Jalen Rose and Jay Williams getting on ESPN’s airwaves and lambasting how much the NCAA are a bunch of hypocrites for not paying athletes. You hardly ever saw that 15-20 years ago from the media or pro athletes.
If you listen to any high end athlete speak that plays for a revenue sport, the first thing out of their mouth is essentially prepare me to get out of here as fast as possible.
Any interviews or players you are referring to specifically? I think overseas is a more interesting debate. In this case, we aren’t really talking about that with any Michigan guys. Just about every U-M player who left was in the NBA system in the years immediately following their decision.
That’s why I think the stay/go decision should be graded on whether someone ends up with a guaranteed NBA contract. If you got that, that’s about all you can ask for and the rest is on you.
That’s different than leaving early with the intention of playing in Europe.
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I understand the perception of it has changed over the years but the experience largely has not (except that players today get a lot more today than they used to). I have some experience with modern college athletics as well, and the way people like Bilas talk about it is completely ridiculous.
Jordan Morgan is one that was on wtka last year talking about it and I know some former college players(non um) that have taken the abroad route and told me about how it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. From what they have told me
- The pay is not near as good as many think. The vast majority of guys make around 100k. Much like how in the nba young guys start out on entry level deals, they start out like that abroad. It generally takes years of high level play and staying committed to the European leagues to build up to get the big 500k-a few million/yr you hear about some Americans making for the top tier euro league teams.
- The vast majority of these teams are financially broke and you’re always chasing down money.
- The fan support, facilities, trainers, s&c coaches(rare to even have one), training tables, transportation to games etc. are crap compared to ncaa teams.
- You are living thousands of miles away from your family, often in countries where English is not the first language. Yeah it is fun to visit most these places but living there is another story. Most of these guys have never been abroad.
There’s a reason why so many good college players(see Irvin and MAAR) attach themselves to the g league for so long. That was even happening when g league play was terrible(~24k).
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Yeah, I feel like that’s just a completely different topic though. Not really what we are talking about as far as guaranteed NBA contracts.
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th tier basketball in Europe is a grind. Basically a conscious decision that someone has to make to be up for it for years. Some guys love it (Stu, Jordan have both put together long careers) and some guys are better off doing something else (Novak).
A guy like Nik is in a much better spot playing in the Euroleague though. There’s a huge gulf in terms of compensation between different leagues and calibers of clubs.
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There are a lot ways to look at this but there are also the guys who cost themselves a small or large fortune by coming back. The most obvious are McGary and Levert.
Caris is making almost $20M a year now. He sacrificed 2 years of earnings to come back to Michigan and get hurt.
McGary was fringe lottery pick after his freshman year.
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Can you elaborate?
Not much to elaborate. Just that playing in a top league (Spanish ACB) for a Euroleague team is very different than playing in lower tier leagues.
Euroleague is equivalent to the Champions League in soccer, so the best clubs in the best leagues. Generally those teams are the most well off, etc.
Got it, thanks. I thought you meant in a general sense, like the style of play suits him better or something.
I guess school has gotten a lot easier as the years have gone by? Or is it just that it’s not hard to do your last year at Michigan when you can do it on your own without all of the support systems a player has getting in your way? All joking aside, I can’t imagine any scenario where coming back to school after a significant break is not hard to finish up your degree. I mean, don’t you have to be accepted just to attempt to finish your degree?
He doesn’t have to get a degree from Michigan if he wants to be a coach, basically any accredited institution will do. Jalen Rose has his degree from Maryland - University College
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Shame on Jalen-unless that was somehow a geographic decision at the time due to his NBA career. I mean, saying “I was a student at UM” just doesn’t compare to “I got a degree from UM”, right?
That was one of the first schools to offer online learning. Got his degree when he was playing in the nba.
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Laudable, not shameful.
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