Priorities

     This was a very basketball-oriented week. The NCAA and its one year in college rule came under fire by NBA coaches and players like Le Bron James and Kevin Durant. The Big 10 Men's Basketball Tournament landed in Madison Square Garden, a week earlier than normal, a concession to the contractual right of the Big East Conference to hold their tournament at MSG in the week following the end of the regular season in March.  James Harden, Houston's M.V.P. candidate and leading scorer in the N.B.A., faked the Clippers' Wes Johnson off his feet and calmly sank a three point shot with almost a sneer. And not to be outdone, James pulled out a ridiculous move of his own in a loss to Philadelphia later in the week.

     So let's sort some things out and then end with some serious perspective. The continuing uproar over the alleged pay-to-play from nefarious sources to entice leading high school basketball players to a particular college is not something new. Instead, it has become so pervasive that its sordidness has finally oozed out into the public, with the expected outrage which followed.

     James and Durant both were correct--the system as it now stands is horribly broken and seems beyond repair. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of college sports, is a toothless billion dollar empire, unready to really police the landscape when money, the driving force behind most everything is coveted by so many.

     I say the NCAA is toothless because it rarely imposes its will enough to make a difference and stop the cheating once and for all. When SMU received the "death penalty" for its behavior in recruiting football players and Penn State incurred the wrath of the NCAA over then Head Coach Joe Paterno when he allegedly looked the other way when Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was abusing children, it managed to survive and get back into the game and, as Penn State has shown, with great success.

     Imposing sanctions against offending schools is the best that can be done. No one dares talk about expulsion, because the member schools know that they, too, are cheating in some form, whether it be in football, basketball or another sport.

     What the latest scandal has shown is that the cheating is rampant. This mentality is a byproduct of many factors and is historical in its nature. It is woven into the fabric of sports and includes the professional ranks, where getting an edge by any means is the norm--see the string of cheating established by the New England Patriots. Yet with all of the penalties imposed, they too rose to be successful in Super Bowl LI.

     And illegal gambling has always been in the shady underbelly of college basketball. The scandals of the 1950's took down players and teams from CCNY and LIU. In the 1970's, Boston College players shaved points off of their games at the behest of gamblers taking advantage of poor kids needing the money.

     Thus, to me, the problem is in the grass roots of sports. It starts when the players are mere boys. Scouts identify who is talented and  pluck from their communities to join other talent on traveling squads on the AAU circuit. Shoe companies sponsor the team and finance these bird dog coaches. Everybody is looking to find the next talent--the next Durant or James or Kobe Bryant--in exchange for financial reward.

     This is what the child and his parent(s) learn--that there is a money trail. And they want a piece of the pie. Look at the Ball family. The father yanked his two other sons from UCLA and high school to play overseas in a misguided attempt to cash in on fame and fortune and have them join their brother at the NBA level, preferably with the Los Angeles Lakers.

     Star players are recruited for high school teams. I find this to be abhorrent. The child never remains in his community and many times stays with a coach of a parochial school or an academy where the emphasis is not on academics but winning with a procuring of talented players, no matter what their true academic level is.

     In New Jersey, the number of public high schools which have good basketball players on their rosters simply pales in comparison to the vast number of really exceptional kids who find their way to the Catholic school powerhouses. These children and their parents are told how wonderful they are and they know that attending known basketball powers is the way to achieve success and entry into college. I sincerely doubt that they pay the tuition to enroll in a non-public school.

     One example of a child traveling distances is J.R. Smith of the Cleveland Cavaliers. J.R. is in the news this week for allegedly throwing a bowl of soup at an assistant coach, earning a one game suspension by the team. Smith grew up in Millstone Township in Central Jersey. Super-talented, he managed to enroll in a public and parochial school before playing at Lakewood High School. From there, he ended up at/was recruited by St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, a school which is not governed by N.J.S.I.A.A. rules. While Smith never went to college and was drafted in 18th in the NBA Draft, I find his journey to riches to be very sad.

     Not every child is talented or mature enough to enter the NBA straight out of high school and attain stardom. So they go to college, where they must stay a year before they can become eligible to play in the NBA and be at least 19 years of age. That rule was established and went into effect with the 2006 NBA Draft.

     Which is why a school like the University of Kentucky, a perennial power in the college ranks, with savvy Coach John Calipari is recruiting high school stars like Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who stay for one year and then ascend to the pros. Towns, who is from Metuchen and the son of a high school basketball coach in nearby Piscataway, was the number one-ranked high school player in the country when he entered Kentucky.

     Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics is another example of the one and done mentality. Irving's father resided in West Orange. He sent his son to play at Montclair-Kimberly Academy, where he starred. Needing a greater challenge, he enrolled in St. Patrick's High School, a small Catholic school in Elizabeth. St. Pat's and Coach Kevin Boyle went out and procured the best talent; Irvng's teammate was Micheal Kidd-Gilchrist who went to Kentucky and now also plays with Towns on the T-Wolves. It was no accident that two mega-talents were on the St.Pat's team.

     Highly-recruited, Irving chose to go to Duke University and play for legendary Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Irving's tenure at Duke was short; he played a few games before being injured and then indicated during the NCAA playoffs that he would enter the NBA Draft. Just like Towns, he, too, was a number one selection. I find it abhorrent that Duke, a premier academic institution, provides a scholarship to a basketball player who is clearly headed to the NBA after year of college ball. Is it a double standard that so many others go into debt in order to attend Duke while a basketball star does not even stay the year and was recruited to simply win another National Championship for Coach K? Isn't this ludicrous?

     Many would argue that the present set up for entry into the NBA is racist. While it is certainly perceived as a limitation, the star players are clearly identified early in their lives, and brought up in a culture where they have been recruited at an early age. The kids know that what they want is to play professionally. They have learned from their peers that there is money to be made along the way. Which is why dollar signs enter into the fray when a renowned high school star is looking at the best deal he can find to attend a college to showcase his talent on the way to the NBA.

     At the collegiate level, the recruiting is fierce. Theer is abundant money given to the superstar coaches, through both the school they work for and by shoe deals with Adidas, Nike and Under Armour. Many of these star recruits know that there is money to be had if they enter a certain school. In years gone by, it was the boosters who wanted to enrich their schools with talented players. Now the cash is supplied by shoe companies and divvied up by assistant coaches who want to make their mark and become a head coach raking in the dollars.  Or the money is dispersed by unscrupulous agents who want to snare a prospect early by fronting the player or providing "loans" which are never repaid. The expectation is that for the money advanced to the kid or his family, the athlete will sign with that agent who stood for the athlete's best interests. What a sham.

     I am not proposing the answer to this mess. Fixing it is not akin to Major League Baseball's crackdown on illegal drug use to enhance performance. The NCAA is unlikely to implode. It almost seems like Congress needs to intercede in order to have some regulation over the NCAA and its members. Unless there is an epiphany, the self-regulation by the member institutions will never be enough because the rules are always broken when winning and the money attached is so lucrative.

     I am not surprised that the alleged conversation that Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller had whereby the FBI overheard $100,000 involved in obtaining the services of a star player  for one year could be mentioned. And since nothing has been released or turned into formal charges, Miller was back on the Arizona bench after a self-imposed one game absence (It hasn't been a good week for the Millers--Sean's brother Archie's Indiana squad was eliminated in the Big 10 Tournament by last place Rutgers).

     How this is resolved is beyond me. It is an interesting story that will be continued for awhile.

     Which is why I looked for something to be happy about in college or pro basketball this week. I did not have to look very far. it was supplied to me by Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

     Last season, the Warriors won their second NBA crown in three years. Traditionally, the winners get an invite to the White House for a photo op with the President. Racial politics espoused by President Donald Trump factored into Curry rejecting the idea that he would go to the White House and be with President Trump. Trump's answer to Curry was a tweet withdrawing any invitation to the White House. Curry and the Warriors made a strong statement which was applauded by the critics of the President and vilified by his supporters.

     The Warriors made their annual trip to D.C. to play the Wizards. This was the time they would have gone to the White House. Instead, something else was on the minds of Curry and fellow Warrior Draymond Green, along with General manager Bob Myers.

     Durant grew up in Prince Georges County, a mere 10 miles away from the White House. Politely turning down an invitation to meet with House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, whose district is in San Francisco, along with Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Warriors sought not to further politicize the event while doing something for the local hero and reigning M.V.P.

     What the Warriors chose to do was tour the National Museum of African American History and Culture along with children from the Seat Pleasant Activity Center, the locale where Durant first learned about basketball. As close to D.C. as he lived, Durant did not know about the museum and surely did not visit the White House.

     But giving back to people, especially the children of the community is in Durant's and the Warriors' DNA. Durant has a long history of giving--he has made major donations to the University of Texas where he played for a year; he has donated to Positive Tomorrow, a place for homeless children in Oklahoma City, where Durant played a number of seasons; and in Seattle, where Durant began his NBA career.

    Now there are the plans for the Durant Center in Seat Pleasant along with a chapter of College Track, an organization to which he has donated $10 million. Giving back to the community is foremost in this native son's thoughts.

     The trip to the museum and the tour with his town's youth impacted on all. Durant plans to return there for another long visit.He gets it. The Warriors get it too. Their coach said it was their day and they had the right to choose how to commemorate it. Which they did in great style.

     The next night Golden State took it to the Washington Wizards, led by Durant and Curry. They were in the right frame of mind.

     Perhaps the only downside to their 3 game road trip was Curry unwisely practicing his golf swing in his room and getting startled by the phone, breaking a glass table to smithereens. Only his ego was hurt, and after the Warriors defeated the Atlanta Hawks, he and fellow All-Star guard Klay Thompson traveled over to Augusta to play a round of golf on the famed Augusta national course, home to the Masters tournament next month. The symbolism of this side trip is that African-Americans, even those who are half like Curry and Thompson, were not permitted to play a round of golf in the once-segregated club until about 35 years ago.

     Breaking down barriers and stereotypes. That is what the Warriors and Le Bron James are doing. In this highly charged, highly political climate, that is some achievement.

    Maybe those with the money--the NBA, the NCAA will be forced to accept change as is the National Rifle Association in response to the Parkland, Florida school shooting. It is a rallying cry form the grassroots. Whether it is from Parkland, Sandy Hook, Seat Pleasant or the local gym and in the colleges, this is the time for not accepting the status quo.

    This is a crossroads in sports. We can only hope that the powerful get it. Starting with sports and the relationship it has with the youth of our nation. This latest round of misdeeds and payments has demonstrated that the time for change is now.