Bob MolinaroThe NBA and NCAA continue to pound square pegs into round holes.
What you end up with are simmering - though hardly shocking - scandals such as the one implicat ing former Southern Cal basketball player O.J. Mayo.
Mayo might be undereducated in the traditional sense, but he's smart enough to understand that a college education isn't required for his line of work any more than it's a necessary ingredient to the success of Hollywood actors, pop stars or tennis players. Even Bill Gates is a college dropout.
It's assumed that Mayo would have skipped college al together had the powers that be not created the 19-year-old draft eligibility rule. It's a rule that thumbs its nose at the law of unintended consequences.
Do the age-limit regulations benefit young players who are good, such as Mayo? Maybe. Maybe not. But concern for the athlete has nothing to do with why they exist. Their real purpose is to allow the colleges and pros to control the product.
The motives of those of us who enjoy college hoops are only a little less cynical. Fans want to see the best players wear the uniforms of their favorite teams without losing them so quickly to the NBA.
Have you ever found yourself wondering whether Miley Cyrus will attend college? Let's hope not because that would be weird. And because the only response is: Who cares?
So why do fans and media constantly obsess over the life decisions of college basketball players?
Our supposed concern for the young jocks' maturation is a masquerade intended to cover our desire to be idly entertained. We want the Diaper Dandies to show up for freshman classes so that, like Dick Vitale, we have something to shout about as we watch TV.
Pardon the rant.
The sermon has been dusted off again in wake of the Mayo allegations.
As a result of the 2-year-old conspiracy between the NCAA and NBA, the best teen players now are required to trade their talent for a year (or single semester) of a college education they don't want.
The NCAA calls this progress. The NBA calls it a refinement of its (free) minor league system.
Can you blame Mayo and other young men for calling it hypocrisy?
If Mayo accepted cash and gifts the past few years from a runner representing an agent, you can argue that he should have known better. But we all know better than to believe that he's the only one-and-done college player who's had his hand out.
It only figures that more are on the way. Young men who will cut and run after only one season on campus are more apt to accept money and other favors from dodgy agents eager to represent them.
It's easy to see why the NCAA can expect more controversies. Mayo might be caught in a web of lies that affects USC, but the deceit created by the 19-year-old age requirement goes deeper than that.
The charade begins when colleges refer to the one-and-done prospects as "student-athletes." But while some colleges are perfectly willing to cash in on the talents of exceptional players in exchange for a bogus educational opportunity, athletes who work the same side of the street are branded cheats and deceivers.
In the '80s, Texas Christian University encountered a large football scandal when it was discovered that wealthy alumni had been buying players, paying them off with cars and large sums of cash. One of the players brought down by the investigation was All-America running back Kenneth Davis.
"They make us look like rats, gnawing away," he said. "But they put the cheese out there for us."
That smell coming from the NBA and NCAA? Rotting cheese.
Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com
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Short sighted
Nice column Mr. Molinaro, but as usual with your fellow journalists, you miss some points.
There is not one thing wrong with the NBA controlling its own product. If it wants to raise the age limit to 25, it has every right to do that. They feel 18 year olds are simply not ready for the NBA, and they are proven right. For every Kobe Bryant, there's two Kwame Browns. And certainly most players never live up to the hype, but they sure continue to make the money.
The paying fans (and journalists don't pay, thus they don't understand) have a right to expect players to earn their money, just like in the real world. But in the fairy-tale world of professional sports, hyped-up athletes expect to be paid BEFORE they have earned it. That's the problem.
Please, in the future, keep that simple concept in mind when writing about professional sports.
STOP THE EXCUSES
This young man knew exactly what he was doing and so did the people giving him the money. Greed is all this is and MAYO should be prosecuted and so should the agents that provided the money and gifts to him. The school bears some responsibility because you will never convince me that they could not tell something was going on and they just turned a blind eye to it all. Take their scholarships and punish their athletic program according to the laws of th NCAA or you reputation as a governing body will be shot. Show no favortism towards any group or person. I also disagree that an education is not needed to do this job because what happens if they get hurt like bobby hurley or many others and can not continue to play basketball, what happens then do they just become another washed up person with no education to support themselves or their families with. Rules are made for the benefit of all and should be enforced as such.