Mark Emmert Doesn't Understand Why You'd Want To Prepare For The NBA Using College Basketball

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What a contradictory cock. Out one side of his mouth saying the only route to the NBA is through college basketball, and out there other saying if you’re there to try to get the NBA you shouldn’t be there at all. What does that even mean? The one-and-done rule is brought up constantly and with good reason: it’s a stupid rule that benefits two groups of people and two groups of people only – NBA GMs and the NCAA. It benefits NBA GMs only in theory, because too many teams continue to stink at evaluating talent for there to ever be a true fix. Busts are going to happen, college players aren’t going to magically become sure things, all it’s going to accomplish is it’ll take a few million dollars out of the pockets of the Malik Newmans of the world.

As for it benefitting the NCAA, I’ve never fully bought that it matters one way or the other for them. The people who prefer to watch college basketball are going to watch the jerseys no matter who is wearing them. Like Duke didn’t sell any more tickets the day Marvin Bagley signed his letter of intent. Kentucky fans have to learn an entirely new roster every summer. It’s inherently a perpetually revolving door with or without the one-and-done rule.

Emmert just feels more pressure now that Adam Silver (Duke man, Harvard grad) has been talking about getting rid of it. He also has LaVar Ball talking about how he’s going to turn LiAngelo into a better pro prospect than college ever could. Which is a scary proposition for Emmert, mostly because LiAngelo is far and away the worst of the Ball triumvirate by a large margin. He was only at UCLA as part of a package deal, he should’ve been some middle tier program at the absolute best. Now, with no classes or thieving from Louis Vuitton to bog down Gelo’s schedule, only basketball, it’s on LaVar to prove he can mold a better pro prospect than a storied program like UCLA ever could.

Will it work? No, no it (probably) wont. A better test subject for this would be, say, Zion Williamson next year since he actually grades out now as a first round prospect but is also raw enough to where a year of *only* basketball could benefit his future greatly. Even if LaVar is right here and does his absolute best, LiAngelo would only get drafted to the G League for the eyeballs that would come with him. A glorified sideshow, if you will. But regardless of LiAngelo, LaVar is shaking the cage and forcing Emmert to directly contradict himself. Which, in and of itself, is delicious.