End ‘one and dones’
The University of Kentucky has again assembled a team of the most talented basketball players in the nation. They come to UK highly touted: McDonald’s All Americans, five-star players with dreams and ambitions to go on to the NBA. “One and dones” they’re called, and therein lies the problem.
Allowing them to jump to the NBA after their freshman year has hurt college basketball to the extent that the traditional “blue bloods” have become mere NBA factories. The coaches do not have time to teach these kids what they need to be successful players and adults. They go to the NBA still babies — multimillion-dollar babies — out in the big bad world, with all that money and temptation galore.
What are we doing?
The NBA needs to put a stop to this. It needs to look hard at how Major League Baseball and the NFL handle the situation. A player must finish their junior year before leaving college to turn pro. This way, the young man or woman has only a senior year to make up to get a degree.
The NBA needs to change now for the sake of the kids and college basketball.
Marty Fields
Lexington
This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 7:24 PM with the headline "End ‘one and dones’."