When fans are asked what they think the greatest rivalries in the sports world are, their answer usually depends on where they live, and what sports they enjoy the most. People in California might say the Dodgers vs Giants or UCLA vs USC. In the south, you will hear Alabama vs Auburn or Florida vs Florida State. There is the Red Sox vs the Yankees, and Michigan vs Ohio State. Just a week ago, Duke and North Carolina played for the first time this season, and there is no question that the basketball programs of those two schools produce great games and their rivalry will be near the top of anyone's list.
Many Hall of Fame basketball players have been produced by the two schools, and there are surely going to be more of them to come for the foreseeable future. Right now, the biggest star in college basketball is Duke's Zion Williamson, and he has been at the center of many arguments based upon what happened to him less than a minute into the game last week.
The entire country was watching and ready to see another game that could be a classic one in a classic rivalry. However, the greatest equalizer in all of sports, the unpredictable injury, struck Williamson in the oddest of ways. He had the ball and went to pivot and then his shoe broke and he went to the floor in pain. He fell down awkwardly and limped off the court, and just like that, the air seemed to be taken out of the building before anyone had even taken their seats. North Carolina went on to win the game quite handily, but the result has been hardly mentioned since Williamson went down.
The debates began, once again, about collegiate athletics, who benefits from the games, who gets exploited, the worthiness of the college experience, and draft rules. Everyone has their opinions on this stuff, and usually everyone has a stance that they will stick with no matter what, and trying to argue it is pretty much like arguing with a brick wall. No one wants to budge.
Personally, I do believe that college athletes are exploited. Ticket prices for that game were getting close to Super Bowl levels, and the players do not get any paychecks, despite being the reason the prices can be that high. They should see some sort of money for being the ones out there. However, I do think that the value of a full college scholarship is constantly overlooked by many people.
I don't mean going to school and joining volunteer clubs or editing newspapers. I mean the actual cost of living at school and going to class. I know people who are paying back student loans a decade after they graduate college. They would all love to have had a full scholarship. Proponents of paying college athletes throw that aside like it is nothing, and, in my opinion, you can't do that. That isn't the main issue in this case though. The issue here is Zion Williamson, and athletes like him. Starting only minutes after he went down, opinions were flying in from everywhere on what this would mean for him, and what it would mean for college sports in general.
It isn't often that athletes become true box office, must-see attractions before they even become professionals, but Williamson has become just that. We don't know what his professional career will end up looking like, but he is probably going to be the first overall pick no matter what, simply because whatever team drafts him will instantly be must see television, even if they aren't any good. Because of that, I heard plenty of people saying he should not step foot on the court again as a college player, and that by doing so, he is only putting himself in danger of missing out on a life-changing amount of money that would come with being taken first overall. I do understand their point of view, but I can't say that I fully agree with it.
I have always believed that kids should be allowed to enter the draft straight out of high school, and I will always believe that. However, the rule right now is that you have to be one year removed from high school before entering the draft. For most players, that means spending one year in college. Some choose to play overseas as a professional, and I think that is totally acceptable. You can get paid right out of high school, just like anyone else in any other field can. The biggest benefit of going to college in the United States for a year though, is you can put your name on the national map and become a main attraction before you even step on to a professional court, and that is what Williamson, like most other high profile young stars, has chosen to do.
When I mentioned getting a full scholarship to college and getting the true "college experience" before, you have to realize that what that experience is varies depending on the individual. For many, the college experience includes going to class and playing frisbee and living away from home for the first time. For people like Williamson, the college experience is much different. His college experience consists of basketball games in front of millions of people. Those are two vastly different things.
When I hear former athletes talk about what they enjoyed the most when they played, the first thing they usually mention is the time they spend with their teammates and being out on the court actually playing. All of the benefits that come with that are obviously nice, but the brotherhood and relationships are what I hear mentioned most often. That is stuff we as fans don't get to fully see or understand, and that is why Williamson shouldn't listen to any outsiders when deciding what he wants to do.
The fall he took looked a bit awkward, but the injury ended up not being too serious, and he should be able to be back to play by March, and in the college basketball world, the month of March is as good as it gets.
Out of all the people who have come out and stated their beliefs on this, the one I most agreed with was Charles Barkley's. Barkley is known to be very outspoken, and not afraid of the consequences of what he says. In this case, he is far more qualified to give advice to Williamson than most people, and I think what he said was perfect.
He said that these kids want to play. Sure, some college football players have begun to sit out bowl games at the end of the season, but that is different. Those are games that have zero meaning relative to the games Duke could be playing in the very near future. Do you think the star player on Duke wants to sit out a game against North Carolina? Absolutely not. Without question they want to be out there. Right now, Duke seems to be on the way to a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, and they certainly have a legitimate chance to win a national title. I would almost guarantee that if you asked Williamson (which it seems no one actually cares to do), he would want to get back on the court as soon as possible.
There is a difference between a college football player sitting out the Idaho Potato Bowl and sitting out a playoff game. It is why no one on a playoff team has ever sat out one of those games with the sole intention of staying healthy for the draft. When Duke is playing in the NCAA Tournament, do you think that Williamson is going to be content sitting on the bench in the name of cautiousness instead of being out on the court with his teammates? No way.
These kids want to play. It is what they have done their entire lives, and it is what they are probably going to do many years into the future as well. All too often, people want to point to these freak injuries as evidence that every aspiring pro athlete should sit in a bubble and wait until they are eligible to be drafted before even daring to put on a uniform. It isn't like Williamson would be the first player drafted with an injury history either. Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving had injury problems in college and were still drafted very high. Their injuries were also much more serious than Williamson's. Embiid and Irving sat out extended periods of time, while it appears that Williamson is only going to miss a week or two. He should be fully healthy by the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and I would bet that there is no way he would want to miss any of that if he were healthy enough to be out there with his teammates.
The college experience for Zion Williamson is a very unique one that most of us will never be able to really understand. The same can be said for being the top overall pick in the NBA Draft, and right now it looks like Williamson has a chance to experience that as well. He didn't earn those things by running up and down the court afraid of getting hurt, so why should he change that right now? Coaches coach, players play, and us fans sit and watch and try to act like we know what is best for these people when what we say really doesn't matter at all.
No matter how you feel about Charles Barkley, he is far more qualified to give advice to Williamson than 99.9% of us are. If I had to try to predict what will happen though, I would say that the chances of Williamson playing as soon as he can get back on to the court are very high. People often look back at their college years as some of the best of their lives. For many of us, that means meeting new people and learning new things. For Williamson, it means trying to win a national title and playing against North Carolina on national television.
You don't want to sit and watch your friends have fun in college without you, so why should he be any different?
Daily Rangers Update: The push for the playoffs is certainly underway as we have reached the final 25% of the regular season. The Rangers will play the New Jersey Devils in just about an hour, and this is the type of game that the team really needs to win if they want to reach the postseason. It is still somewhat of a longshot, and I think that we are closer to seeing a few guys dealt at the upcoming trade deadline, but I am still holding out hope that the team can go on a run here and finish the regular season strong.
Daily Giants Update: Reports were out there that Landon Collins may or may not be planning on being somewhere else next season, but the Giants can use the franchise tag on him, and in my opinion, they would be foolish not to do that. Try to hopefully get him re-signed, or at least maybe work out a trade to get something in return for him. I would hate to see him walk away for nothing because he is still very young and could be an anchor on defense for years to come. There is still about a month to go until many of these decisions will have to be made, but the time is getting closer and closer.
Daily NBA Update: I know James Harden has been terrific this season, as have a few other guys, but I really think that Paul George should be the frontrunner for the MVP award right now. He has been absolutely magnificent for an Oklahoma City team that I think has surpassed expectations thus far, even though they looked good coming into the season. Right now, they sit in the third spot in the Western Conference, and George would be my choice for MVP as of today.
No comments:
Post a Comment