California Dreaming
It never rains in Southern California, however when it does…it pours.
There are two sides to every story. With that said, ESPN broke a story of corruption on Sunday morning, via the half-hour show Outside the Lines. The focus is on OJ Mayo, the celebrated hoops hero from West Virginia. In a nutshell, he allegedly accepted money, perks, and gifts since his high school days, in agreement to sign with a well known sports agency. The way crime works, is that the criminal seeks something or someone to exert their expertise upon, essentially preying on others. If what ESPN reported is true, then it is important that we remember how student athletes are just as much “targets” as their professional counterparts.
Will OJ join the ranks of the NBA with pulp, and some extra baggage? The main issue that could be dealt with, to curtail these types of accusations would be to flirt with the idea of paying student athletes. I know first hand that a full athletic scholarship doesn’t equal a pinch of the Booster, TV, Bowl, and Championship revenue made by colleges and universities. If student athletes were paid, then people like Papa G (Sam Gilbert), would be rendered powerless, by the sometimes questionable system that is the NCAA. This ordeal may loom like an elephant in the USC trophy case, and only time will tell the other side of this story. And last but not least…any team that decides to hold the Mayo on draft night, will miss out on a very special person. Peace, AXG
AXG,
You know Im for paying these kids. The ncaa is legalized slavery as far as im concerned. The schools make ridiculous amounts of money off these kids that are just an injury away from losing out on their much deserved pay day. While coaches collect million dollar salaries. It’s all BS if you ask me. Just more of the great divide.
I hear you Michelle. First they [colleges and universities] love you, then they hate you, and sometimes they love you again.
So lets see they tried to make him out to be a thug his last few years in highschool and his first year in College……..but he foiled their plans because he didn’t get in trouble.
Next they tried to say that he was a selfish player. But he foiled that because he was far from a selfish player and his teamates and coaches agreed.
So now they get him on the….”he took some money tip”. So I guess to the media he is this new generations version of the fab five minus 4 players. SO he is cocky, a thug and took money while in college.
Hey got to make a new bad guy (Vick is in jail, Zeke lost his job, Pacman can’t play yet, Chris Henry doesn’t have a team, Carmello gets in trouble but always apologies) so what does the media do????
Make a new villian.
This is nothing more then feeding the monster while at the same time showing OJ who is the boss.
I shrug any time a collegiate athlete is accused of taking funds and the usual suspects come raining down, breathing hellfire on the athlete and his academic institution.
I love college basketball and college football, but the NBA needs to drop its age requirement, and if the NFL won’t, at least consider forming its own minor league system. The NCAA is a poor substitute for a farm system, the reason talented athletes deal with it is because there’s no other choice.
Has it ever occurred to you race-baiting morons that these “exploited” students are actually getting a free college education in exchange for their athletic commitments? That amounts to over $150k over 4 years at many schools. This is hardly a system of “slavery.” Any college athlete has the option of not going to college at all. If an athlete happens to get injured at college, thence depriving them of their big NBA, NBA, or MLB payday, then too bad. That’s life. Life has risks. If someone is so damned concerned about these issues, then there’s a simple prescription: DON’T GO TO COLLEGE!
Shut up. We’re past the players who do right or the colleges that do right. This is a different context isn’t it?
Get off your midget high horse with your feet not touching the ground and really see what’s going on instead of loving the system over and over with no grease.
I am the product of athletics at a major university with a degree, nevertheless the school always wins no matter if the student athlete “makes it” or not. So I am in favor of the student athlete getting paid to prevent what has happened to the University of Michigan, and what is about to happen to Indiana University and countless numbers of other colleges, coaches, and most importantly the players.
This is a problem for all races, colors, and creeds.
Two other issues you fools are seemingly unaware of are:
(1) How to distinguish what one high school recruit should get paid over another.
(2) The tremendously corrosive trickle down effect that paying college athletes will have at lower levels in the chain. The predators are already combing the junior high yards in their hunt for new talent. The payoffs and bribes and kickbacks will only get worse at these levels once college athletes are paid.
It is noticeable, Mizzo, that you put nothing on the table with your hostile and useless “shut up” type of attitude. You completely fail to address my main point: college athletes DO get quite a bit out of a free education. For the morons who are just using “the system” to further their professional sports careers, then college is providing them YET ANOTHER benefit in terms of big time exposure to the pro ranks.
It’s clear that most of you here approach this issue from one of hyperkinetic racial sensitivity and a burning desire to turn this into an issue of racism, despite the fact that white, asian, and latino athletes equally “suffer” (according to your twisted point of view). Seriously, the way you regular posters march in lockstep to these issues, you’re no better than Fox News republicans, so far as your uniformity of thought is concerned. You’re like a very small cult who chants the same mantra over and over and over again.
Salongo,
You bring up a very valid point with the trickle down theory. Never thought of that. As for student athletes using the college for their gain, it happens all the time, especially in basketball.
Thank you for bringing another light to this article. Like it says, there are two sides to every story.
When you come to our site and call folks names who are not addressing you personally ya damn right I’m gonna snap. Are you the institution we criticize? Yes college athletes get something out of their education but colleges benefit greatly or we would have a playoff system in football.
No cult here. Just folks sick and tired of midget voices like yourself who can’t handle the truth.
You are on personal defense why again?
Like I said before, the context was not the athletes who get the most out of their education because they aren’t going to the pros. We are speaking of the kids who drive the program yet can’t even work to take their girls/guys on a decent date.
That’s foul and those aforementioned should be rewarded.
AXG he’s not speaking objectively or he would have come here with a more civil tone.
I think college athletes should get paid as well. It will never happen, but from the numerous college athletes I have known and talked to, they go through a lot for a school that can throw them to the side so easily.
Most people say a college education is getting paid. Ok, that’s valid, but not 100% at least for all players. Believe me there are MANY players who try to work a real job in order to cover expenses, but athletics and school work take up so more of their time they can’t cover just about anything. I’ve seen some athletes working minimal hours at two jobs and not get anywhere.
And belive, more than the schools get rich off of these students. How much money do tv networks make while showing these games? How about advertisers? What about sports stores selling the jerseies (sp?) these athletes mad famous? How about sports media who write and talk about these schools? Or the people who make famous video games modelling these players?
Hell….how much money did OJ’s high school make off of him as he sold out game after game?
I could go on and on but many people become rich off of these players who may never see a true dime in the long run. Yeah other students get full ride scholarships, but they don’t put their mind and body through as much carnage as some of these players do year after year.
Its a hot debate, but I would vote for them to get paid. As long as it is resonable. School’s provide other students a chance to work for the institution, have a scholarship and still make money. While graduate to a lucrative field. I did it all four years. But athletes are not given that same chance.
C I agree with everything you say. It should be obvious to folks like Salongo, but he seems like one who falls lock and step with anything corporate.
Another thing. Read The Starting Five Is, a feature or two… as well as the interviews before you make a blanket statement on our agenda.
It ain’t about Black or White..it’s more about what is right.
The only answer that will probably satisfy almost all opinions, and an option that I support, is a legitimate NFL and NBA minor league system. However, to call the current college athletes “exploited” is absurd. College athletics is providing them with effectively free exposure to professional organizations, and ultimately paving their road to a millionaire’s mansion on the hill.
While benefiting ten fold from the business transaction.
“However, to call the current college athletes “exploited” is absurd. College athletics is providing them with effectively free exposure to professional organizations, and ultimately paving their road to a millionaire’s mansion on the hill.”
I don’t agree with this statement. Before I got to college I would have agreed, but when I saw how a lot of athletes are living, my mindset changed. Yeah you do have those that come to school and take advantage of the system. But they’re MANY more who are taken advantage of and not given the proper opportunities they should recieve. And when all is said and done, the school has taken more from the students, than they will ever recieve in the long run.
I agree Mizzo and CEvidence during my college days I have seen dudes who wanted to take certain majors and practicaly forced by the coach to take an easier major.
I have seen dudes get hurt and have their scholarship taken away from them. I have seen dudes who had reading ad writing disabilities get passed on and get free grades. All because they were great players.
All of this is a diservice to the players. D@MN if they get a so called free scholarship. Not to mention the millons of dollars the school, conference and NCAA make off them. Let alone the money that the networks make.
Oh boo hoo hoo. These poor exploited star athletes on campus. Whatever should we do to help them? Here’s an idea. If some schmoe is incapable of handling his studies, his athletics, and a menial campus job, then right out of high school he should work for 1 year, live at home, and save enough money for 1 year’s worth of late night burgers at the local diner. What, you think these guys should actually have to work for their dreams like the rest of us? Boo fucking hoo.
And guess what else. If the poor, embattled star athlete wants to study physics as an undergrad, and just can’t seem to find the time to keep up with the rest of the braniacs, then that athlete should quit sports altogether and pursue physics. PLENTY of regular schmoes have to make exactly this sort of comprise as they balance college and money issues.
Seriously, tackle the problems that ordinary people have to deal with. OJ the star, pampered athlete doesn’t need your help. The guy is going to make millions in the NBA no matter how much he cheated the existing NCAA system.
Salongo,
You also seem to forget their are two standards in our society. One that whites in many cases live by and then there is the rest of us. White boys nare getting paid and taken advatages of perks problem is no one is calling them out or complaining. I watched a documentary about 5 years ago about this very subject and there were many white former football players laughing about all the things they recieved during their college days so take your bs out of here. Until asses like you admit that people of color are treated differently in this country we will always have this argument. The NCAA has been corrupt allowing athletes to take bs classes just so they can stay on the field and make the colleges all kinds of money. Dexter Manley couldn’t even read so how the hell could he be academically eligible? The school didnt care about him at all. So you dumb ass are the fool. Get real.
“And when all is said and done, the school has taken more from the students, than they will ever recieve in the long run.”
—————————————————————-
Rubbish. How about the school that winds up paying the star hoopshead and doesn’t even sniff the sweet 16? You think Arizona should have paid Jerryd Bayless for the luxury of his one-and-done leadership? Should said athlete repay the university for their abysmal performance? Should the university have the opportunity to kick that star athlete’s ass right out of school for failing to live up to his high school hype? You want to pay these jugheads like professionals, then they deserve the added pressure of having to perform and show results like the professionals. Each university should have the right to trade these bums to other schools if they so choose.
Bottom line is that these athletes get a hell of an opportunity at these colleges. Forget the education part (hilarious that this is what it’s come down to). These star athletes get to parade and strut for the NBA and NFL. Think they advertise their talents farting around in a development league in Turkey or Lithuania? All that’s happening now in college basketball is that these megastars have to delay their big payday for ONE SINGLE LOUSY year. You want to spoil them even further by making colleges pay them for that one year of service? Yeah, good ol’ OJ Mayo and Jerryd Bayless really did wonders for their respective programs. The universities put up the time, effort, and money to develop these facilities, and they deserve some return on their investment.
You guys only speak of this exploitation because you’re hellbent on finding an analogy between the old time slave plantation and modern NCAA athletics, despite the fact that black athletes aren’t the only race subjected to the system. You should just admit this instead of pretending that you actually give a damn about the plight of these individuals.
Salongo,
Your are the short nerd that was the last guy picked in gym class aren’t you? It’s ok now we understand. Your jealousy is very obvious. I bet you also wear a toupee. I feel your pain geek.
Salongo. Thanks for tipping your hand. How the hell do you get through the spam filter?
B Peace.
Awww…what’s the matter michelle? Some of your racist jive gets challenged and you spurt and sputter and can’t do anything but spit out some irrelevant ad hominem attacks? Lame. You’ve shown your true colors. You’re intellectually incapable of legitimate debate. All you were able to put on the table so far is some bogus reference to a documentary that, supposedly, suggested that white athletes uniformly get away with cheating the NCAA system, and only black athletes get persecuted and investigated. Naturally, you cite no hard evidence, no studies whatsoever (as usual). You should blow smoke like a busted steam engine, totally without authority or credibility. And while we’re on this subject of NCAA investigations, take a look at the coaches that the NCAA has taken down over the years. Jerry Tarkanian (whitey), Kelvin Sampson (Indian), Dave Bliss (whitey)…these are just a few examples off the top of my head of non-black coaches that the NCAA has justifiably nailed. In other words, Michelle, you and your racial history are completely full of shit. Take all your phony righteous racist crap and shove it straight up yer ass! Yeah!
LOL Michelle
And what exactly is your “spam filter?” Something that filters out all dissent from the party line? Yup, that’s a really clean intellectual environment you’re runnin’ there Mizzo. Mugabe would be right proud.
Read the rules of discourse. I have no problem with dissent. Even along racial lines, but when you resort to name calling that kills the conversation.
Peace.
LOL. Good one Salongo. Michelle does get out of line at times and deserves a good smack down.
Salongo you are a ignorant fool didn’t I just say that the coaches many ties won’t let player take certain majors?
This is done not because they feel he player can’t handle it. It is done because the so called student athlete would have to spend more time on that major there by spending less time to focus on the sport. This is about saving the coaches @ss and job and helping the team win.
Seems as though you are a jealous fool. Do youcomplain about student getting academic scholarships??? Many of the scholarships that students get a lumps of money that sometimes cover all their books or tuition and ofen times they have money left over. I knew of a few students at my college who would gt scholarships and have money left over to pocket.
Sometimes it would be a couple thousands. So should they give that money back. Since its like they were getting paid.
Mizzo — your hypocrisy is outlandishly obvious. You don’t hold your good buddy michelle to the same rules of decorum that you pretend to hold sacred. Hypocrisy ain’t a good character trait buddy, especially not when you parade it for everyone to see.
Salongo seriously man…you need to just stop. Really.
First, I never said to pay the athletes like professionals. That’s flat out stupid and I for one am not an idiot. MANY schools give their players different forms of stipends, but just like regular students who work on campus. However, those stipends are RARELY enough to cover basic living expenses: i.e. gas, clothes, food, etc. If these schools are making millions…MILLIONS to pay every single coach the way they are, something can be done to help the athletes out that are struggling as well.
Second, there is money available for some hard case student-athletes to apply for. But that money is very sparse, AND the applications are often a joke. I’ve done research on them and they really are a joke, look them up. Again, funds that can be seperated from the millions that are brought in from these very same student-athletes.
Third, these students all ready have the pressure to perform like professionals WITHOUT the money. You don’t think Rose was under pressure to perform this year? Hell…most of them are all ready bad mouthed by the media enough that you would think they are professional athletes, not 18-21 year old children or young adults. Fans of these teams act like the players owe them something, just like if they were professional athletes. So like I said, they all ready face that pressure to perform at a high level.
Fourth, ANYONE who recieves a scholarship to a major school has a “hell of an opportunity.” Whether you are a regular student or not. The simple fact is you got there the same exact way. HARD WORK. The same way a good student worked hard to get a full ride, an athlete worked hard to earn their scholarships. However it is MUCH more easier for a student athlete to lose their scholarship than it is for that same regular student. Much more easier.
A lot of these athletes are exploited from the school flat out. For example, the Clemson player who was taking care of his little brother by himself. When it was hot in the media, the school put him to the forefront for all this great publicity. I’m willing to bet that no only did he get legal donations to help him raise his brother, but the school was financially rewarded as well. But once the story goes cold and he got hurt, what did they do. Revoked his scholarship just because he was hurt. Now how is it ok for them to exploit his story flat out, then get rid of him once they are done with it?
It happens man…flat out. Like I said, there are players who take advantage of the system. And I thought they were all the same way. Even when I had my opportunity to be a student-athlete. My eyes were not opened until I met other athletes that were struggling. Even one who QUIT the athletic program because he had to get a full time job in order to be able to support himself while in school.
Some solution needs to be reached but things are not equal.
Salongo then why are you choosing to mimic Harvey Dent?
What did he do to you?
What does this site do to you?
What is your purpose?
Why are you so vile?
Who do you represent?
What are you?
I’d like to make a few points….
1) America does not operate as a socialist system. College ballplayers are workers. Coaches are middle management. The universities are the corporate heads, and the head always does better than the feet. That’s capitalism, and capitalism was never meant to be fair; deal with it. Factory workers don’t take home the same check as the founder of the company. College ballplayers know the deal when they opt for college. Breaking the rules is breaking the rules. If they don’t want to live by those rules, they should head to Europe where any player can play, regardless of age, then come back to the NBA once they get drafted, and they will get drafted. Or…. they could strike. Have a sit-out. Have every black senior, who doesn’t have to worry about his scholarship getting revoked, refuse to play in a bowl game, or suit up for the first round of the NCAA tournament. Would it be a painful loss of a childhood dream? Sure, but getting what you want takes sacrifice. This site loves to hold up Ali, Smith, Carlos, et al as examples of how to protest. A sit-out by college seniors, in the most important games of the season, would be in keeping with the protests of those great athletes and civil rights champions. And, if the fact that the NBA has a silly age rule (and it is silly) and no real minor league system is what’s making this NCAA situation so ludicrous (and it is ludicrous), then why don’t Magic Johnson and a few of the other multi-millionaires who got fat off their talent start up a minor league? If they care about the players so much, why not put their money where their mouths are?
2) Paying college players is not the answer. Students who do a lot of the research for their professors get no money when the prof takes the student-generated research and turns it into a book or a lucrative speaking tour on the college lecture circuit. The students who did a lot of the leg-work are told that’s how the system works, and it IS how the system works. It’s called paying dues. The most a student will get is a mention on the acknowledgement page of the best-seller. Those students are not living in dorm rooms with flat-screen TVs, wearing clothes from Rodeo Drive, driving SUVs from the car lot of a former NFL star, or moving their parents into homes rented by scum the likes of Rodney Guillory. And you know what? Those students somehow make it though four years of school, and maybe two or three more years of grad school, without breaking rules because of ‘hardship.’ Cry me a river for OJ Mayo’s supposed ‘hardship.’ I spent four years in the Peace Corps in a sub-Saharan African sh*t-hole and watched dying kids — AIDS orphans, usually — get eaten alive by swarming insects. OJ Mayo living at USC without a cell phone or a flat-screen TV! Oh dear, the poor, poor child. Paying Mayo or any other college athlete would be to cater to the cries of hardship, false cries in a country where having only one parent and an SUV that’s over two years old and having to pay for your own cell phone service is considered lower class. Give me a break.
3) There has to be some substance to the argument concerning the way the media seems to focus its attention on the superstar black student-athlete. It is a fool’s errand for anyone to try to deny that some white Americans just hate to see young black kids succeed. Logically, it just does not follow that not a single white college QB or white major basketball star hasn’t been helped along the way by the same dingy elements who helped Mayo or Reggie Bush or whomever else we want to include in the discussion. From the dearth of coverage of cheating white superathletes, a reasonable person would conclude that either a) white athletes don’t cheat (impossible to believe), or b) the media sinks its teeth deeper into the story when it involves a black athlete (quite easily believed).
4) Can we stop watching high school games on ESPN? Can we stop checking out the websites of eighth-graders whose parents think are the next LeBron James or Tiger Woods? Can we stop talking about, blogging about, reporting on, or drooling over teenagers who have done nothing but win a few games in a corrupt and shameless nationwide system of traveling youth teams and ‘handlers’ who jockey players from one high school to another because the players are too immature to grow up and adjust to student life the way every other high school student has to do? The problem is not just with these pampered, spoiled, pathetic teenage athletes; the shame is also in the people who get some perverse pleasure from hyping these kids as if playing basketball or football was actually a relevant, important skill in life. When a kid who can dunk a basketball also finds a cure for cancer or builds a better mousetrap, then let him make a claim to greatness. It’s hardly ‘great’ to be able to run faster than everyone else.
You make solid points all around but to deny that players aren’t great because of all the hard work they’ve also put in to become the upper echelon athlete is ludicrous.
To compare athletes to anyone else is also incorrect in the context of this discussion. They do what they do and that’s all we can ask for. I think that’s where your third point comes in. There’s a lot of envy going on.
When Whites controlled the athletic landscape there wasn’t all this anger regarding money. When you watch a game do you watch an athlete simply because of the money he makes or because of his talent?
The protest you’ve alluded to is a great point. Will Black athletes and coaches follow through with such an ambition is the question. When I interviewed a string of Black college basketball coaches in 2006, I asked a couple of them what the hell is going on with college football? They all were just as confused as we all should be. The numbers of White coaches compared with those of Blacks is absurd.
It’s not getting better.
I have to disagree with your point about college athletes not getting paid and also your point about capitalism. It’s a cop out to just say the college landscape thrives on capitalism. Does that make it right? Should we just fold our arms and give up or speak out?
Again, there are more important things to discuss, but none of that is relevant to this discussion. That’s not diminishing your point about your Peace Corps experience. Props to you for that.
As far as athletes getting paid…seriously…who is generating more dollars than the athlete? Athletes sign a contract, why shouldn’t there be eventual negotiations to secure some of the burgeoning pot? A lot of these coaches wouldn’t have jobs if not for the world class athlete that happens upon their program every blue moon as well as the 5th year senior who never gets on the field.
I think there should be an incentive based system for every athlete in every division.
If these ballers were white would this even be an issue? Amateur sports is a big business and everyone is getting paid but these young, (primarily) African-American kids. The universities know what’s going on with this recruits and these top rated players are only going to NCAA for 1 year anyway.
They are going to take the perks and bounce from school before the allegations make the news. They do background checks and know more about these kids than anyone else.
The NCAA is a joke and they make MILLIONS off the back of these athletes. Trust me… I was one of them.
Strength!
I see no problem with OJ. he deserves to to able to make his money by any legal means neccessary.
Will the day ever come when Africans create their own league like the old ABA? Only this time fill the gap between high school and pros?
You’ll have the ballers getting paid to play in a league that respects them and treats them like MEN, this will take care of dictator Stern’s minimum age requirements, the young cats get prepared for the pros and get paid and the NCAA get their “student Athletes” and fodder for their plantation machine.
We have the economics and the brains in our community to do so, but do we have the WILL? This is a rhetorical question.
AHHH! But this is only a dream…I will wake up now!
There aren’t that many Africans in the NBA sankofa, especially those that play at a high level, ie Starters. Who would be in this league? Deng? Thats all I can think of.
I agree with the notion that there should be a league to compete against the NCAA that pays athletes. I think a league for b-ball and football aimed squarely at kids coming out of high school and paying them around 45K- 220K a year would kill the NCAA.
Stern should have just utilized his D-league and the European league to enhance the age requirement… draft them out of high-school straight into the D-League and pay them and “call them up” when they are ready. I don’t know how many D-League teams there are, but if there is limited space have a lottery system or open try-outs and let them earn their way up to the big league… Also, I was a good college student, but I don’t know if I could have juggled credit hours along with a seemingly year round athletic schedule and then have to worry about having money in my pocket and having nice clothing and truly having a wonderful college experience..
DMac… it’s me Sankofa! You don’t know how I speak?
My African is your “black”, knee-grow or any other definition of who we are originally.
And we need to kill the NCAA or at least humble it. There is nothing big business overstand more than money leaving their bank accounts.
Michelle
That’s not me taking shots at you but I do apologize because my screen name got jacked.
Me doth think Salongo doth protest too much. It’s amazing how certain sports stories bring these trolls out of the woodwork to these sites. Mizzo and the other writers have created a blog for a free exchange of ideas and not insults right off the bat. This is just a cyber community and many of us will never meet outside the Matrix but those of us who do post on here consistently have a modicum of respect for each other. If we get out of pocket sometimes it’s because we’ve been on here for months and ‘know’ each other enough to talk that way. You dont’ get any respect, Salongo, for slinging mud at us by trying to make your opinion more valid than ours. State your piece and have something more than insults to back it up. If you want to get personal take it over to DeadSpin or some other place because it doesn’t fly around here.
Getting to OJ Mayo. I’ve done a complete 180 to my thoughts about kids turning professional at an early age especially in the NBA and NFL because the NCAA and the colleges truly pimp these kids out for as much as they can get. For the scholarship Mayo got from USC he more than paid them back by raising the program’s national profile. Who actually talks about USC basketball now really? Seems like a fair exchange and if Mayo got something on the side for his troubles, so be it. If you want to call this capitalism as BeInMicelf does, then OJ made a capitalistic decision for himself and cut the best deals for himself. Screw the program. That’s why I like pro sports so much better because I gag on this homespun drivel about love of the game. Sad as it sounds, get yours because these mossy old organizations are going to get theres on your back be it white, black, brown, or yellow.
WOW! Missed a live one today!
Saloongo, as has been already said, it is your condescending attitude that is most troubling. Realize that you are not the first guy with a major dissenting opinion to frequent this site. If you make the same exact arguments without being an obnoxious ass, then you will receive more respectful replies. But your lack of respect tells those who may disagree with you that you are not worth their time — because it is already evident that your ego and need to be right will trump any sincere and genuine quest for truth. No one wants to respond to that as it is an excercise in masturbation. Moving on you state…
“However, to call the current college athletes “exploited” is absurd. College athletics is providing them with effectively free exposure to professional organizations, and ultimately paving their road to a millionaire’s mansion on the hill.”
This is a common reply because too many people do not accurately understand the definition of “exploited”. People mistakenly believe that “exploitation” only applies to 5 year old girls in China working for 25 cents and hour in a dingy smoky factory that is rife with asbestos. But Marvin Miller clears things up:
“As an economist, I will tell you that exploitation means the difference between what your services are worth and what you get paid. With that definition, major league baseball players, including those who benefited from Jackie Robinson’s experience, were the most exploited people in the country.”
And using the correct definition, there are few people more exploited than the likes of OJ Mayo whose $$$ they generate dwarf his college tuition. There is no argument presented here that we didn’t already here prior to Curt Flood in baseball. “Stop complaining, be happy, and follow the rules” would have kept ballplayers making $50,000 while owners took in hundreds of millions. Like Flood there is no alternative system for an 18 year old in America. The age rule — while I do like it for basketball reasons only (i don’t like “potential” sitting on a bench) — is completely unconstituional. If there was an alternative minor leagues like baseball, then the equation would change. But until then, OJ should have gotten paid.
Whenever issues like this arise in college sports the one thing that always catches my attention is the resentment that some people have towards those athletes that have an opportunity to make millions. Very few things in life will burn a person up more than seeing someone that they feel is inferior to them get more out of life financially than they. Nothing but good old fashioned envy.
OJ Mayo and other star athletes are being exploited. To suggest that simply by recieving an “education” the exploitation is ok is assinine. That’s akin to saying slavery, or if that word is too harsh for your sensibilities, indentured servitude is ok because employment,room and board were provided. Pay those young men for their labor.
Modi. why is it so wrong for high school potential sit on the bench ? Usually the high schoolers are sitting in between college and international talent who are waiting for their potential to materialize. What’s the difference?
Eric
Call a spade a spade a spade brother. The haters are angrey when African athletes specifcally get paid, make shit loads of money or are talked about in coversations like this about college athletes needed to be paid instead of being exploited by the #1 exploiter corporate nation in the modern world.
After all and as it was said earlier in this thread, African athletes aren’t the only one getting perks and under the table “gifts”, they are just the ones punished for it.
Why do you have to make it a race thing when it isn’t sankofa. Its a student-athlete issue, not a race issue.
Once again the question arises. Did OJ do it!
If he took the perks, I don’t have a problem with it. If Q is ever in that position, as long as he’s not shaving points or doing anything illegal why not.
DavidMac
In America inc., a place where ethnic cleansing and caste policy was created and socially perfected and continue to run to this day, it is ALWAYS about race. Even supposedly non racial issues get twisted by the dominant media –controlled by elitist Anglo-Saxon male oppressors- in to a “us against them” issue regardless of whether they actually call it by that name or not . Code words, framing an argument a certain way, pictures on top of pictures, distorted pictures etc, and the sheeples eat it up.
To you it’s a student athlete thing, because that’s how you believe it, but I’m not inclined to think so. Mizzo and the other media warriors can attest to the code words thrown out there daily… urban, hip-hop culture, thugs, athletes as opposed to student athletes, to name a few… are some coded words targeting African people.
Let me ask you man, how many athletes have been exposed as taking money from predator agents and the like are pictured looking like OJ Mayo. Do you think only the highly melanated are doing this? You think Anglo-Saxon athletes; some from challenged background are so much morally on another level that they don’t take money or gifts?
I want to keep my foot on the peddle dude, I have to try and shed light on the evils of inequity that’s my intention.
The two biggest ones I can think of right now are Bush and Mayo. Does it matter that they are black? Nope. They are just the ones who got caught, it is no big deal what color they are.
I think the real reason OJ got caught is because he is stupid and was flaunting all the stuff he should have been hiding. Reggie got busted after the fact by guys who were trying to shake him down.
Do I think Leinart, Marino, Boller, Smith, or any other first round QBs didn’t get favors, hell no. Some of them most likely did get gifts and money, but they didn’t get caught.
I say it does matter their color, because the media’s spotlight shines brightest when the perpetrator is dark.
I am not sure if he got caught due to his flaunting his stuff and while that is a distinct probability considering the feeling of being above the rest mentality of so many athletes today, neither you or I can say that. What I have read though is there was scrum to get his committment to an agent when a little bird ( turned out it was one of his “boys”) let it slip that he already had been “locked up”.
Again if you check back on all the cats getting “caught” it was because some one decided they couldn’t keep their damn mouth shut, it certainly wasn’t the athletes themselves.
And a note: OJ was being pimped when he was in grade seven. How wise were any of us at that grade level, much less when Bush and Webber were in college?
“Modi. why is it so wrong for high school potential sit on the bench ?”
Eric, b4 I answer the question let me state I only like the rule on selfish NBA fan grounds, but not ethical and moral grounds where someone’s right to earn a living is denied. Qualified vets stay on rosters longer instead of “potential” rotting — and not developing — on benches. There have only been three players coming out of HS in NBA history able to make immediate significant contributions their first year: Lebron, Amare, and Moses Malone — because they had NBA bodies. KG chipped in 10, so he is debateable. But Kobe, T-Mac, Jermaine and every other stick figure basically rode the pine. Why not develop? Keep a roster spot for someone more deserving? I actually believe that MJ and Doug Collins ruined Kwame forever with how hard they rode him that first year. They fucked the kid up for life…
The bottom line is that most guys coming out of HS AREN’T qualified their first year, and shouldn’t get a slot over a vet. It is the only sport where people who you KNOW can’t contribute draw a paycheck. In baseball they are sen’t back to the minors. In football, their bodies just aren’t ready. I either favor colleges paying athletes or a minor leagues like baseball.
I’m with Sankofa that race plays a major role… because it is often black players that get investigated to begin with. ESPN is completing a 4 month investigation. You know what. Investigations cost money. They are BUSINESS decisions, and ESPN needs a return on their investment. Investigating black athletes are simply more profitable in this regard. It is what biased white viewers like to read about whether admitted or not. The black athlete has been market tested over and over. That is why Pacman is in the news every day, but Tim Donaghy and Chris benoit disappear. Investigating Kevin Love — even if accurate — will not get you the same response, period. The narrative was already their for OJ Mayo — one supplied by the media.
When white and black athletes are INVESTIGATED by media with equal fervor, then race will cease to play a role. The only exception to this rule is The NY Daily News who believes that EVERYONE is scum. At least they are consistent.