Is This the Beginning to a New, Ugly College Sports Trend?
theathletic.com
If you haven’t yet heard, Duke freshman Jalen Johnson is forgoing the rest of the season in order to prepare for the NBA draft. In other words, he’s quitting. Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. It’s not solely because he has talent to play at the next level and he doesn’t want to risk injury from prevent him from doing so. That’s what anyone that defends his decision will tell you. Don’t buy into that for a second. That’s only part of the reason. The other part, and it’s a huge part of it, is the fact that Duke is not good this year. At just 8-8 overall and 6-6 in the ACC, Duke is most likely not going to make the NCAA Tournament. Their season is essentially over, except for a possible consolation prize in the NIT. That is why Johnson decided to quit. Because you know as well as I do, if Duke were playing well and had a chance to cut down some nets in March/April, then he is not leaving the program.
This decision isn’t a total shocker. I mean we have seen the same thing become a trend in college football. Talented players with a chance to play in the NFL opting out (or quitting in my preferred choice of words) of bowl games that will not get them a national championship opportunity. I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t like it and I never will. It’s quitting on your school, team, teammates, coaches, and fans. The only thing it’s not quitting on is the player themselves, which nowadays is all that some players care about.
We haven’t seen this type of thing become a trend in college basketball yet, largely because of the postseason format. Because 68 of the nation’s best teams still have a chance to win a national championship in the middle of March, the top players aren’t going to quit. They want the opportunity to win it all and be in the spotlight. Then when they lose a game and lose that opportunity, their season is over anyway. So, this ugly trend hasn’t really been a thing in college basketball.
That is until Jalen Johnson decided to quit this week. A major player from a major school. And now I hope for the life of me that his decision doesn’t affect others the same way in the future. If top college basketball players begin to have the mindset going into the season that, “I’ll continue to suit up and play for my school if we win, but as soon as things go bad I’ll just quit and get ready for the NBA draft,” then college basketball is in serious trouble. A school offers a scholarship to a player because they truly believe in them and want them to represent their program. Then a player like Jalen Johnson treats that scholarship like it means nothing and totally wasting it when the school could have used it on another player.
Like I said, I don’t agree with players doing this and never will, but my main thing here is hoping this doesn’t become the new trend in college basketball. It will just make the sport even more less desirable to watch if it does. It sends the wrong message to young athletes who may be in similar situations someday. It also say a lot about a person’s character. If I’m an NBA executive with draft input, I’m definitely taking that into consideration as a red flag. If he’s willing to quit on his college team, then why wouldn’t he be willing to quit on his NBA team, like we just saw with James Harden? And I’ll end it with this: here we have yet another reason to let kids go straight to the NBA draft out of high school. If they really think they are ready to compete with the best players in the world, then let them try so they will stop making a mockery of college basketball.
Garett