Keegan: Overseas migration not killer

By Tom Keegan     Jul 13, 2006

The loudest noise made this week at ABCD camp in Teaneck, N.J., came out of the mouth of Reggie Rose, brother of Chicago recruit Derrick Rose, a Kansas University recruiting target who reportedly is leaning toward Memphis.

The elder Rose told the New York Times that Derrick might skip college, sign a shoe contract and spend the year he has to wait for NBA eligibility playing overseas.

“Once one or two players nationally go that route, a big chain will follow,” Rose told the Times.

You can’t blame players from families who could use the money taking this route, but let’s not jump to any ridiculous conclusions should this happen.

Let’s not say such a development would hurt college basketball. There are so many talented players that if the top dozen or so every year bolted for shoe-company-funded barnstorming tours, the college game wouldn’t be watered down in any significant way.

Three-point shots that beat buzzers in packed gyms would continue to rain. Windmill jams will continue to be played on the SportsCenter highlights.

The names on the back of the jerseys are partially responsible for the allure of college basketball. The name splashed across the front is a big part of it as well.

Consider that if Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush and Julian Wright all had ended up on the same barnstorming European basketball team a year ago, instead of coming to Kansas. What fan base would adopt that team the way a nation of KU fans would have embraced whatever three players would have been playing in their place in Allen Fieldhouse? The answer, of course, is no fan base.

A player who puts on a Kansas uniform is beloved until he gives the masses reasons to turn on him.

As for TV exposure, would you rather watch a good college game pitting a school you tend to root for against one you tend to dislike or a tour of all-stars killing a year on the way to the NBA?

The NBDL is another choice for players seeking an alternative to college basketball. Unless shoe companies pay the players, the league never will be very lucrative for them. There won’t be any TV dollars because nobody would watch minor-league basketball, just as nobody watches minor-league baseball on television. The Triple A All-Star game was on television Wednesday night. Did you watch it? Didn’t think so.

Players looking to bypass college basketball should only do so for financial reasons. The instruction they get won’t be as good elsewhere, both from an individual-development standpoint and in terms of learning how to play team basketball.

Sonny Vaccaro of Reebok also made some noise at ABCD, saying he was looking into the feasibility of American high school players obtaining citizenship in foreign countries so that they could become eligible for the NBA Draft out of high school, as are foreign players. Here’s a better idea, Sonny: Build a throne for a European basketball fundamentals czar. Require every American high school player to pass a test given by the czar, who only passes the players if they are up to European standards. This could lead to European fundamentals summer camps sprouting up across America and could even result in a gold medal at the Olympics.

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