Responding to Mr. Halpin

I would like to respond to Jason Halpin’s Wednesday Space Filler. Mr. Halpin is under the impression that both the NBA and NCAA should colaborate to prevent high school basketball players from jumping to the NBA and require these athletes to attend college. Mr. Halpin, you fail to understand that these few basketball players who you single out, like Lebron James, do not want to go to college. The only reason they would go to college is to sharpen their basketball skills. Why force these athletes to attend college and subsequently allocate funds to educate someone who has no desire to be educated when there are thousands of less fortunate who would jump at the chance to be educated for free? People should not be forced to go to college before they are allowed to enter society an earn a healthy living. Take Bill Gates, he decided college presented no challenge to him, so he left. Lebron knows college won’t be a challenge to him, so he is skipping it. As for your references to “high school” NBA player. You failed to mention the sucesses of Moses Malone, Shawn Kemp, Rashard Lewis, and Amare Stoudamire. For that matter, did you consider such starts as Dirk Notwitzki, Yao Ming, and the countless other foreign born athletes soon to join the NBA. None of them ever attended college. They were “professional athletes” receiving salaries in when they are 15 and 16 years old. Do you propose that the NBA conspire with the national governments of these foreign nations to require these athletes to attend college? The NBA is in the business of entertaining. To be successful, the NBA seeks to give its customers the best experience. That means the best talent on this planet. A large part of attending college is building knowledge and skills for a particular profession. Lebron has chosen that profession. Why force him to wait until he can succeed? Because he is so much younger than you that it makes you feel that you have outgrown the game? Because you grew up in an era where not a single player besides Shawn Kemp declared early out of high school between 1980 and 1995 and basketball was clearly more exciting during these times? It’s still not a reason to force Lebron to attend college, allowing a UNC or UCLA to make millions off his name while he sees no money until he has met your proposed requirements before jumping ship for the NBA millions. Admit your simply jealous of these 18 year olds who make enough to cover your tuition each week.

Seth Barnett SMG ’01