It would appear that David Stern is giving one of the NBA's favorite sons a big advantage on draft day. When Stern set up the guidelines prior to the 2006 draft about age limits, a player must be 19 or one year away from High School graduation before he can be drafted into the NBA, he also set some rules about underclassmen scouting. According to the guidelines no NBA scout or team representative is allowed to speak to or watch a game involving any player not eligible for the NBA draft. "This keeps our scouts out of high school gyms," Stern said when enacting the rule.
Micheal Jordan has been running his Jordan Brand All-American high school game for a number of years now. He takes some of the best high school kids from around the country and has a sort of East v. West game. There is also many days of practice and meal time and the families of these kids get to come along as well. Well now that MJ has become the owner of the Charollete Bobcats he is continuing to conduct these games. So not only does he get to see these kids play he gets to see them practice. All the other owners and scouts are only allowed to come see the game. Jordan also gets to interact with these kids and see if they have the level of maturity needed to make it as an NBA player, and observe their social skills. Exclusive knowledge of this type gives him a huge advantage on draft day when it comes down to 2 or 3 different picks of nearly equal playing skill.
The league thus far has looked the other way in regards to Jordan's high school game, and related festivities. But, in other cases of violations of these new prospect guidelines the league has been rather harsh. Danny Ainge was recently fined $30,000 for talking to top prospect and future lottery pick Kevin Durant. Jordan also runs Flight Schools on the east and west coast which offer basketball training to pretty much anyone that wants to learn to play better. Jordan hires top prospects from high school and college to work as counselors at these schools giving him even further access to them. All this interaction can only help when it comes to free agency as well, when the only difference between 2 teams isn't money but instead is a comfortable relationship with the ownership. Jordan has gone as far as playing one on one games with these prospects.
This is all giving the Bobcats a very big advantage not only in the immediate draft but also a longer term advantage in future free agency. And, thus far the league has done nothing about it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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3 comments:
More things that show what a joke that league is becoming and how out of touch Stern is with what's going on...
I am totally disgusted by all of this, and it isn't really about Jordan, or his high school leagues, which seem actually pretty cool.
I give the NBA 5 years before it implodes. I like basketball, but the pros have turned me off for over a decade. Curious to see what comes of this all. What a debaucle.
I am surprised at how overtly Mr. Stern is displaying the NBA as nothing more than a money-making corporation. At least the other three main leagues try harder to support the illusion that the owners are in it simply for the pursuit of athletic excellence. If I ran the NBA, there would be no traveling for anybody, regardless of how many years a player has been in the league. I used to get sick when Jordan would be allowed to take 5 steps before his lay-up, or pivot on three feet trying make a pass. But Mr. Stern realized that allowing Jordan to do whatever he wanted made the league more money. And that still holds true today, apparently
I DO hate the traveling! Damn if they didn't let us even quarter-step before we got the WHISTLE in high school girl's b-ball...but these mega multi million dollar professionals can't even be expected to follow the most basic rules of the sport?
Sad and stupid.
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