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Does Education Matter When It Comes to Basketball Players?

Is Education Important for Basketball Players?

  • Total voters
    23
addictionary

addictionary

Well-Known Member
Is it important for basketball players to have an acceptable-to-you amount of education in their resume? Does knowing that or coming across an action or speech of one that gives you the impression affect your views upon a certain player?
 
I voted "no," but I have to qualify my answer.
If you can do the job, I don't think it necessarily matters whether you've gone to college for a year or even graduated HS for that matter. Do you need to be a HS graduate to work in a mine, flip burgers at McDonald's, etc?

That said, the odds of making it as a pro athlete are very, very small. So one would hope these players are being encouraged and helped to have a "Plan B" for life without pro sports or life after 2-3 years when marginal players get cut and replaced by the next crop of rookies and cheaper FA's. I'm very much AGAINST forcing players to attend college. It is not a requisite for all 18-yr olds. Why does it have to apply to great basketball players post-HS? If they're good enough to be drafted, they shouldn't have to attend college. It's clearly just a money grab by universities who benefit from having the best players forced to enroll somewhere for a year.
 
Stifle Tower said:
I voted "no," but I have to qualify my answer.
If you can do the job, I don't think it necessarily matters whether you've gone to college for a year or even graduated HS for that matter. Do you need to be a HS graduate to work in a mine, flip burgers at McDonald's, etc?
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You've clearly never applied for a job at McDonald's or in a mine. The answer is that yes, you do need a HS diploma to even be considered for a job flipping burgers and absolutely for a job in the mining industry.
 
IQ, mental toughness, concentration and tenacity are very important. The mental aspect of the game is still underrated by scouts and coaches, imo.
 
Catchall said:
IQ, mental toughness, concentration and tenacity are very important. The mental aspect of the game is still underrated by scouts and coaches, imo.
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Education is different from basketball IQ.


Also, no reason to have "No" and "Don't Care" as options since they both convey the same feeling in this context.
 
Stifle Tower said:
I voted "no," but I have to qualify my answer.
If you can do the job, I don't think it necessarily matters whether you've gone to college for a year or even graduated HS for that matter. Do you need to be a HS graduate to work in a mine, flip burgers at McDonald's, etc?

That said, the odds of making it as a pro athlete are very, very small. So one would hope these players are being encouraged and helped to have a "Plan B" for life without pro sports or life after 2-3 years when marginal players get cut and replaced by the next crop of rookies and cheaper FA's. I'm very much AGAINST forcing players to attend college. It is not a requisite for all 18-yr olds. Why does it have to apply to great basketball players post-HS? If they're good enough to be drafted, they shouldn't have to attend college. It's clearly just a money grab by universities who benefit from having the best players forced to enroll somewhere for a year.
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There are very, very few players who are ready to make an impact in the NBA straight out of high school. The main impact of the requirement to be one year out of high school is that the teams don't have to make such speculative picks. Even then, notice that the majority of lottery picks are selected more on potential than on results. My point being that it is not simply a money grab by colleges. It helps the NBA teams as well.

It's more difficult to say for certain whether it helps the players, especially because the answer to that is player specific. For those who take their education opportunity seriously, I believe that nearly all of them are better off for it in the long term.

With all of that said, I agree with others that intelligence is a whole lot more important than education when it comes to drafting a player for our team.
 
Cy said:
Education is different from basketball IQ.


Also, no reason to have "No" and "Don't Care" as options since they both convey the same feeling in this context.
Click to expand...


You're right I was meant to make the 3rd option "Undecided" but slipped that way. An old habit from the sociology class research days. Too bad I didn't pick up the habit of posting a meaningful scale of options.
 
More into specifics. NBA is no pickup game for sure. Coaches tell you to do things, your agent tells you about everything, the FO has always something about you etc. etc... And let's set up an imaginary situation of you being dropped out of high school or middle school. The NBA let's you to play. But your entire teammates are all coming from college. What would your basketball experience be like? Would it matter more in extreme examples like that?

To me education is an important part of human life and development of the mind, but it is not a universal difference maker from what I can tell from my experience. I have taken lessons from professors dumb as a rock, only memorizing the words and lines of the stuff they had studied and don't even have an idea what they actually mean. More like government officers than academical scholars. But some people, even if the life had not been fair enough for them to reach some decent conditions to receive the education they would want, their minds work effective and fast like snake poison. I think this formula would apply to basketball as well, if they had let it. I don't know if there are many examples or even any example like that in the NBA. I'd be delighted if you give if you have one.
 
knowledge and personality are two different things. cousins went to 1 year of college, and he acts like a child. exum is 19, but he acts more mature. Education teaches you knowledge not good personality.
 
addictionary said:
their minds work effective and fast like snake poison.
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This is exactly how my mind works!
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Gameface said:
You've clearly never applied for a job at McDonald's or in a mine. The answer is that yes, you do need a HS diploma to even be considered for a job flipping burgers and absolutely for a job in the mining industry.
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You probably haven't been to a McD's in CA: speaking English isn't even required.
There is zero reason to REQUIRE players to attend college in order to play in the NBA (outside of revenue for the NCAA and universities). Does college help most players? Yes. But ADULTS who are ready to enter the job field should be allowed to do so. T-Mac, Kemp, A. Stoudemire, J. O'Neal, Kobe, KG, Moses Malone, D. Howard, and oh yeah, a guy named LeBron: all players who jumped from HS to the NBA.

What is the primary purpose of going to college (I mean besides the frat parties, beer, drugs and sex)? Isn't it to improve one's job prospects? Minimum salary in the NBA, IINM, is $500K+. But actually, the last player picked in the 1st round gets about $1M/per. So a player picked in the 1st round is GUARANTEED at least $3M in career earnings. How many of us on this board will make that much money in our entiree career? A handful? I know I won't. I benefited from college in other ways, but I would have jumped at a GUARANTEE to legally make $3M in 3 years by forgoing college. And if some committee had jumped in and forced me to go to college instead of being able to sign with an employer, you can bet I'd be taking legal action. The NCAA uses college athletes to make money; the universities use college athletes to line their pockets. And the NBA and sponsors are complicit. College basketball is about March Madness and billions of dollars. It is NOT about "the kids."
 
I would say no. Education obviously doesn't matter for NBA basketball players. How many players in the league never went to college or never obtained a college degree? My guess would be more than half the players in the league. Look at the Jazz roster, I don't know for sure, but I'd say maybe 2 or 3 on our roster have college degrees...
 
dong2ha said:
knowledge and personality are two different things. cousins went to 1 year of college, and he acts like a child. exum is 19, but he acts more mature. Education teaches you knowledge not good personality.
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Also Dante has spent the last 4 years going to a HS that basically specializes in sports, not actual education. He might actually be dumb as a brick when it comes to basic education.
 
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