By
Connor Doyle
In a recent chat with UA provost George H. Davis, the course of the conversation brought us to the issue of early entrants in the NBA draft - an issue that's going to become important in the next few months, since there's a good chance that at least a couple of UA players will leave early for the NBA.
This has been almost a non-issue at UA, with Mike Bibby being the notable exception. Bibby, the point guard who helped lead the Wildcats to the national title in 1997, left following his sophomore year and stands as one of few Wildcats to leave early to pursue professional interests.
Davis - one of the most prominent people on the UA campus - voiced his concern that leaving early for the draft contradicted the basic concept of a player becoming a true student-athlete, someone who actually intends on leaving school with a degree in hand.
Furthermore, he accused NBA teams of being selfish.
Think about it - the league takes players from college programs that have spent a great deal of money cultivating the athlete and leaves the school high and dry.
Davis said he didn't think the NBA should pay colleges directly - rather, they should donate to scholarship funds.
Clearly, Mr. Davis has spent a great deal of time thinking about the issue, and he has a point.
However, I saw his argument as proof that the most important people in the entire equation - the players - are not thought of as much more than pawns in a big game of money.
Remember Harold Minor? Bo Kimble? Ed O'Bannon? They all owned college basketball, only to fizzle in the pros. What do these men have now? Not much.
Then and now, the lives of these young men haven't been given much thought.
What happens if Jason Gardner declares for the draft early and doesn't have a long career in the NBA? What if Richard Jefferson re-injures his foot and never gets past his rookie year? What happens if Michael Wright discovers that his sub-par vertical jump is more of a liability than previously thought and finds himself out of a roster spot in a couple of years?
None of these players can come back to school - they've lost their eligibility.
As far as the UA is concerned, they're just former students, in no way different from that guy everyone knew their freshman year that had to drop out because he couldn't stop drinking.
These players are in need of advice from people who have nothing to gain from any decision they make.
That eliminates anyone associated with either the NBA or the UA.
You also have to count out those people closest to the player, notably family members, friends and girlfriends. They clearly have something to gain from the players, who would turn from college students into meal tickets overnight.
While we would hope this isn't the case for any of UA's players, it's not outside of the realm of reason that these young men already have a mass of people waiting to use them for their money and fame.
These student-athletes need an unbiased, caring group of people to turn to when making one of the most challenging decisions of their lives.
How about the NBA Players' Association? They've proven a valuable asset in the past when it came to issues involving people already in the league. Why can't they expand their influence?
If this association truly has the best interests of the players in mind, they would want to make sure that early entrants realize the gravity of the decision they're making and ensure that the players are equipped to make it.
By providing counselors that college players must see before they declare for the draft, there could at least be one party that truly has the welfare of these young men in mind. It would be a refreshing change in a world dominated by agents, hangers-on and bloodsuckers.
Who knows? It could keep Michael Wright from becoming the next Harold Minor.
