Even though I wasn’t alive yet, watching clips of Duke basketball games in the early 1990s will always be an enjoyable sight. The chemistry and determination the teams displayed spoke volumes to who they were as players and coaches. The Duke teams of the late 80’s and early 90’s advanced to four straight Final Fours and won two National Championships.
The leader of those Blue Devil teams was a guy by the name of Christian Laettner and boy was he hated. He attended Duke and was tall, white, handsome and known as a “rich kid." But worst of all he was the most talented player in college basketball at the time. He was a classic case of you loved him if he was on your team, but not so much if your team was facing him.
The worst part of being a fan of a team that played Duke during the Laettner years was that he stayed for all four years of college. It was a big part of why he became a villain in the game and it is one thing that you don’t see that often in college basketball. Laettner holds records that are still standing and will probably never be broken. The reason? Players don’t stay for four years; well at least if they’re a star.
We live in a one and done era where the cream of the crop will play one year of college ball and then ditch class to sign a multi-million-dollar contract, and to be honest, I don’t blame them. Think about it, you have this 19-year-old kid who just went through a grueling year filled with class, homework and tutor sessions. In addition to playing a full basketball season which included weeks of travel and countless hours of practice and workouts. After the season, he is given the option of doing it all over again or leaving in hopes of making a lot of money and competing with the best basketball players that this world has to offer.
A majority of the top college players will go with the latter and it makes sense. I don’t have to go to school, I get to play a sport I love and I also make a couple million a year in the process? Sign me up. Here is the problem, a lot of those guys who leave early for the NBA just aren’t ready to be in the big leagues. They hear agents and coaches telling them how great they are and how much money they will make which distracts these kids from asking themselves if they are ready to take the next step.
Though my basketball career was extinct after my 8th-grade year at St. Bonaventure Middle School, I do know that besides talent, you need to be mature in order to play in the NBA, both physically and mentally. In the NBA you are competing with and against men; men who can be bigger and wiser than you. Tackling the NBA is a whole different animal and frankly, I am tired of seeing college players leave early only to end up playing in the D-League.
Two guys that quickly come to mind in last year’s draft are Kevin Looney of UCLA and Tyus Jones of Duke. Both had solid college careers though they only lasted a year. Looney led his Bruins squad to a Sweet Sixteen game and Tyus was the point guard of the national champion Blue Devils. They both finished up their first year and were ready to go to the NBA, or so they thought. Jones was drafted 24th and Looney 30th, which was a good start to their professional career.
The only problem was that even though they were drafted in the first round, the respective teams who picked them didn’t see them vital to their NBA rosters. Currently, Tyus Jones is playing for the Idaho Stampede, the D-League affiliate of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Kevin Looney is a member of the Santa Cruz Warriors, an affiliate of the Golden State Warriors.
These two guys and others who end up in their spot are the reason that college basketball isn’t where it once was. Rivalries aren’t as intense and the talent isn’t there anymore because guys leave too early. So many players think they can make it to the NBA after one year of college and most of them just simply can’t. Now I am not saying that they won’t be good NBA players one day because maybe they will be, but the problem is they are playing in the D-League instead of continuing to develop their talents in college.
Which brings me back to Christian Laettner. I didn’t know much about him before seeing the ESPN 30 for 30 that was based on him and Duke titled I Hate Christian Laettner, but the more I learned about him, the more I loved him. This guy could’ve left after one year and probably would have made it in the NBA no problem, but he didn’t. He played four years to strengthen his game and lose as many weaknesses as possible to decrease the chance of him being exploited on NBA courts. Along with Christian, teammates, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill, also stayed all four years at Duke University. The three of them combined went on to play in the NBA for 38 years. They came into the league as prepared as possible and staying four years at Duke helped them get to where they were as rookies in the NBA.
Now I’m not asking for the NCAA to make players stay four years in college before declaring for the NBA, but at least, make them stay two. The college game would substantially increase in quality. More teams would be relevant because players will go to different schools since guys won’t leave after one year, meaning that they might not get as much playing time at college A as they would at college B. In the long run, I do believe that it helps the players as well. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are the only two guys in the last decade who were dominant during their rookie campaign, LeBron entering at 18 and Anthony 19. Which backs up my point that if they aren’t going to be special in their first year, why not play another college season? Maybe it is selfish of me and I’ll accept that, but imagine the game of college hoops where players have to stay more than one year. It probably looks like a lot of fun to watch.
