Charging the Mound

The NBA Draft has come and gone again, leaving a bitter taste in colleges all across America. As expected, Blake Griffin was selected with the first overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers. But once again, the real story is that the once healthy symbiotic relationship between the NBA and NCAA is now reduced to a sad remnant of its former glory.

The 2006 decision to revamp the NBA-CBA changed the minimum player's age from 18 to 19, encouraging graduating high-schoolers to play at least one year of college ball.

Boston Celtics' forward Bill Walker said as a high school junior, "I'm against it. I don't see why you have to be 19 years old to play a game of basketball when you can go to war and die for your country at 18. It's ridiculous."

No kidding. The decision that also included dress codes concluded that one year of college ball would improve the league's supposed thug image and develop a more mature set of players.

The problem with using the college game as the league's unofficial minor league is that it has robbed it of all respectability and credibility. Players are no longer selecting schools as legitimate stepping stones and are in fact just biding their time until they are eligible for the draft.

Take for instance Brandon Jennings. He chose professional ball in Europe over college, and he just got selected 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Most of the players are no more concerned with their GPA than the dorm stoner. Besides that, colleges are far from boot camp in terms of instilling maturity and discipline. Does Commissioner David Stern not remember his college years?

These are all moot points anyway since the reasons behind the changes are far from valid. Numerous top draft picks prior to the change currently serve as league ambassadors. Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett are all examples of excellent players who have doubled as model athletes in The Association. What are the common denominators between these players? No college. The media made too much of the Ron Artest fight, forcing the league to make ridiculous policy changes and now the college game is paying for it.

The NCAA should protest but they won't. The sad truth is that they get a pocket-full of cash for having the sport's elite players in their schools, even if only for one year. The NCAA clearly put a price on which the education of student-athletes become irrelevant and the NBA met it.

So four years later, and the pencil pushers of both organizations are still enjoying the benefits of their respective agendas. Meanwhile, the real losers are the fans, schools and student athletes, even if they have yet to realize it.