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| Left to right: Doron Lamb, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones, and Marquis Teague. All five will be in the 2012 NBA Draft on June 28. |
This isn't the time to laugh at UK fans for losing the team that won them their first national title since 1998. This isn't the time to blast John Calipari for building a team off of one-and-done players. And this especially isn't the time to criticize the players who made the decision to turn pro.
Imagine if you were in that situation. You bust your butt for 10+ years playing for church leagues, the YMCA, your high school squad, and AAU. At the start of your senior year, you get an offer from John Calipari and the University of Kentucky. An offer...to play basketball...for free...at the best college basketball program in the nation. Coach Cal tells you that you'll be able to walk onto campus and into the starting lineup if you continue to work as hard as you have for the past decade.
You walk onto that court in Rupp Arena for the first time in front of the loudest, craziest fan base you've ever seen, and they're crazy because you're a part of one of the best teams to ever play the college game. You win game after game off of airtight defense and selfless offense, and you go into the NCAA tournament with only two losses under your belt. Yet you use those two losses as motivation, as a chip on your shoulder, and blow through the tournament like a NBA squad. Because you are a NBA squad.
You've now won the first national championship in 14 years for one of the most storied programs in college basketball, and you're finally listening to the outside voices. Voices saying that you, a kid who hasn't even seen two decades, could be the first pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. A lottery pick. A first-rounder. A late first-rounder. At any rate, this has been your dream since you were shooting on that little Nerf hoop your dad taped on your bedroom door. You know what you'd do with that first paycheck--buy a house for your folks, your first new car, a big house for you and your girlfriend--the possibilities are endless, because your lifelong dream has come true.
Now, how can you say no to that? How can we as a society tell those five kids what they're doing isn't what's best for them, what's best for the game? What's best for them is to obviously take their talents to the next level, where they'll be appropriately compensated for their talents. If they weren't talented enough for the NBA, scouts wouldn't express such high interest in them. Plus, they have nothing else to prove. Unlike Kentucky's last mass exodus, these guys won a championship on an outstanding combination of fundamentals and raw talent, and didn't even blink while doing so.
Put to bed all of the talk about John Calipari's 'controversial' method of coaching and recruiting. We look at his past and assume he's just cheating again, but there's no reason we should assume he's breaking NCAA rules until it's proven that he's doing so. Maybe, just maybe, all of the blue-chip recruits are going to Kentucky because they know that if they become part of something that's bigger than themselves, they can achieve an unprecedented level of greatness. And also, maybe they attend UK because they love how accepting Coach Calipari is of them leaving to go pro after one year. This method is frowned upon by many, but it obviously works. Under Coach Cal, Kentucky doesn't rebuild--they reload.
I know this hasn't been my past opinion on the subject. I know that, literally weeks ago, I was saying the opposite of almost all of what I've written. But I'm changing my perspective. The college basketball world is changing, and that's something we as fans will have to accept, lest we lose the love of the sport altogether. And it's not a selfish decision for them to go pro. It's selfish of you to say that they don't know what they're doing.
My perspective has changed on the situation. I hope someday soon yours will too.
Nick Reith is the chief writer of Hoosier Hipsteria. You can follow him on twitter @Nick_Reith
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