A2322
v. 105:no.141
le Battalion
PINION
Page 5 • Wednesday, June 30, 1999
01
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Professional basketball needs rules to prevent players from dunking diplomas for contracts
'ational
Basket
ball As-
Iciation
com-
lissioner
iivid Stern
’ kently told
\n Post he
puld like to
|e age re-
BECKER
triable -f 6 Washing-
latches.
was i
f ]> v Eirements for players entering
™Ie league.
ot th 1 ^' t * 1 more an d more players
skipping college or leaving early
to declare themselves eligible for
gltsnpa* e nba draft, this is a much-
' ee Ps itl nt eded policy.
^amee.tl The National Football League
Open, sifts a policy in which incoming
1 thinkplayers must be out of high
ell in afthool for at least three years be-
iment, fore entering the draft, and with
Grand fte overflow of young players try-
hasastailgtoenter the NBA, a similar
of andaftle* 8 needed for basketball.
Stern said the NBA has the
ftht to set the requirement in the
llective bargaining agreement,
ad he believes it is possible to
rtf 1116 u p w * t ^ 1 a ru * e t * iat
| ilithstand legal challenge.
JIXOj Today’s NBA draft will have 39
. layers with at least one year of
1 * bllege eligibility left. This in-
/ udes two high-school students,
C pe college freshmen and 11
y bphomores.
Duke University, which has
mliflinst P erhad a basketball player
6 lave with eligibility remaining in
itihistory, is losing three players
er son t
mages. I
times
it was«
of the :i
ed thi;:{
i. I thiiit]
id
erback A
t most of)
e squad.
y signifit
this year to the NBA draft. One of
them, freshman Corey Maggette,
did not even start for the Blue
Devils.
The NBA needs to institute an
age-requirement rule to curb this
influx of young players.
Professional basketball is a
whole different game than college
ball, and it is a universe away
from high-school hoops.
Players need time to mature
and improve their game before
taking that leap to the NBA.
Today’s NBA is rife with show
boating players whose antics and
lack of team-oriented basketball
skills have led to lower scoring
and a dumbed-down style of play.
With an age rule, the quality of
play in the entire NBA will im
prove because players will enter
with more experience, more
proven skills and less of a propen
sity to kick sideline folding chairs.
Tim Duncan is an example of
the maturity that can come with a
four-year tenure in college. His
experience and maturity allowed
him to coolly and confidently lead
his team to the NBA title this year.
While many younger players
might have the raw talent to win
the championship, they do not
have the confidence and mind-set
needed that more experience in a
less rigorous environment like
college would afford.
The NBA is different from the
sitcom-filled days of high school.
Professional players are con
stantly on the go and on any giv
en night could be anywhere in
America. In this lifestyle, it is in
credibly hard to adjust, especially
for immature people.
Moreover, many younger play
ers have yet to prove themselves
in college, and when they are
drafted by the NBA, they find out
they cannot cut it.
Jermaine O’Neil, a budding tal
ent fresh out of high school, aver
aged under 3 points a game his
first season in Portland.
Rashard Lewis of Seattle and
Tbacy McGrady of Toronto, also
high schoolers, were stuck in the
deep recesses of the bench and
saw less court time than the pow
er dance team.
With the NBA rule about
smaller, three-year contracts for
rookies, many young talents find
themselves out of the league be
fore they make enough money to
spit on. Even the better players
only have a shelf life of 5 to 10
years and after that, what is left?
Just a high-school education and
a few minutes of highlight reel.
Even the players that do land
the million-dollar contracts usual
ly live a lifestyle that leaves them
with little to live on after their ca
reers are over.
A college education is so much
more valuable than a few years in
the league. Players who leave col
lege early are not considering
their future.
The worst part is that many
team agents and executives en
courage players to leave early to
start on their three-year rookie
contracts so they can become a
free agent that much sooner,
primed to make the big bucks.
But an education will always help
more in the long run, and players
are selling themselves short if
they do not finish college.
Stern has suggested in a press
conference a rule that would in
crease the length of the player’s
rookie contract by a year for each
year a player tries to enter the
league under a suggested age of
around 20. This would discourage
young players from leaving early
in order to get started on that
rookie contract and would en
courage players to go to college
and to stay in college longer. This
rule will be good for the players
and good for the league.
Older players are more experi
enced, more mature and better
Jeff Smith/The Battalion
prepared to enter and succeed in
the NBA.
Players entering the league try
ing to make the quick bucks
should be stopped because they
are jeopardizing their own future
and are hampering the quality of
play in the league.
Jeff Becker is a sophomore
computer engineering major.
lush makes best Republican candidate, even if not best president
nless a miracu
lous turn of
events occurs
.the next year, it is
Ibvious that George
y. Bush will be the
[epublican nominee
ir president.
The other candi-
iates are not even
lose to him in the
Tom
OWENS
[oils, and Bush has raised more money
the shortest length of time than any
her candidate in electoral history.
Many in the more conservative camps
the Republican Party are showing cau-
[on before supporting Bush because of
is avoidance of controversial and divi-
5PURS iive social issues.
37-13 Those fears are most likely unfound-
r — 1 Id. Bush is a master politician, and his
id Ron* avoidance of certain issues is one of a
lumber of strategies he is employing to
selectlo |pp ea i t 0 the undecided voters in the
:4) tratk |ooo election.
/ancou« Reporters have repeatedly tried to cor-
arl Hen* l er him on these divisive issues, and
liels. Ivery time he manages to defuse ques-
lons that might offend potential voters.
KETS irom the very beginning. Bush has
11-19' fcown a healthy arrogance toward the
r - 1
d Ron*
press. He has made it clear that he de
fines the issues, the timetable and the
conditions regarding his campaign.
Another concern of economically ori
ented Republicans is Bush’s touting of
“compassionate conservatism. ”
Their worries are well-founded in the
context of political history. In the past,
whenever a candidate has talked about
“compassion” what he has really meant
was the mass re-distribution of wealth
from producers to non-producers.
However, Bush is merely brilliantly
re-framing a classic conservative princi
pal, that charity should be the responsi
bility of private organizations and not
entitlements from a centralized govern
ment.
Bush emphasizes “compassion” be
cause of the word’s extremely positive
connotation, so that prejudices portray
ing Republicans as cold, uncaring capi
talists can be erased in the minds of un
decided voters.
Bush is masterfully giving extra atten
tion to those issues where Republicans
suffer the greatest politically.
Everyone knows that Republicans are
the most qualified to run an economy or
fight a war, but few would agree that a
Republican is the preferred leader to
help the poor. Bush is confronting and
defeating that bias head-on.
This is not to say Bush would be an
ideal president. He is a believer in de
structive free trade, which cripples
American manufacturing, and he also
supports liberal immigration policies.
If political realities were a non-issue,
there is a better choice for president.
If one could pick anyone from the
field of candidates to be president, as
suming he or she would win the elec
tion, the best choice would be Pat
Buchanan.
Unfortunately, he is perceived by
many to be a “right-wing extremist,”
thanks to a press smear job welcomed
by the mainstream of both parties.
Buchanan represents a threat to the
power brokers of both parties because he
supports issues that could unify the core
constituencies of both Democrats and
Republicans.
By supporting protectionist trade poli
cy and being extremely conservative on
social issues such as abortion, Buchanan
could have united both Union Democ
rats and Religious Right Republicans into
a populist majority which would serve
the interests of neither mainstream Re
publicans nor liberal Democrats.
The parties “use” both fringe groups
politically. The big business Republicans
will occasionally throw crumbs of con
servative social policy to Christians to
keep them appeased, and liberal Democ
rats will offer nominal support in labor
disputes to keep unions happy.
"For conservatives,
there is a simple
question that reveals
the best nominee,
though not necessarily
the best president”
Since neither party actively serves the
people from whom they derive most of
their power, the possibility of Buchanan
succeeding represented a circumstance
unacceptable to the political power
structure.
This became painfully obvious in the
1996 campaign as normally polite Robert
Dole publicly called Buchanan an “ex
tremist,” while being as docile as a pup
py in his dialog with President Clinton.
It is a shame Buchanan has been po
litically blacklisted by the establishment,
because unlike Bush, he has only a few
minor skeletons in his closet.
As an overzealous Catholic youth,
Buchanan once burned down a newspa
per stand that sold pornography and
egged the Soviet embassy. When revela
tions of Bush’s past come to light, the
public reaction will be more than just
passing amusement.
Politics, however, is the art of the pos
sible, and Bush fits the bill better than
any other candidate.
For conservatives, there is a simple
question that reveals the best nominee,
though not necessarily the best presi
dent: who is the most conservative can
didate that can still garner a majority of
the electoral votes against the Democrat
ic opponent?
Bush, though not the best potential
president among them, is the best candi
date for president.
If one wishes to operate within the es
tablished political system, one must also
observe its realities, for better and, most
often, for worse.
Tom Owens is a senior chemical
engineering major.
p response to June 29 editorial,
‘‘Halls of Justice."
ielectio* “
(No. f .
shoot) student reacts
le^to honors hall plan
(No. I s
reece.
IICKS
9-31. The move to make Clements
. __ Ji |all an upperclass honors hall is
undiNtf [poor decision.
As a former resident of
elects jlements, I have seen it grow and
) s ent ! nature from one of the least ac-
Novvitqive halls on campus, often
MAIL CALL
isio
to apf
joesn"
i, the*
-ougP
acess
dubbed “the two-percent hall,” to
a hall with strong cohesiveness
and an outstanding tradition of
on-campus leadership. Restricting
the ability to live in Clements will
destroy the community atmos
phere that Clements has worked
for years to rebuild.
It frustrates me to know that
the Department of Residential
Life and the Honors Program have
been planning this for an extend
ed period of time and gathered lit
tle to no input from on-campus
residents. If a decision is going to
affect more than 8,000 students,
it makes sense to ask for input.
While it was presented to the
Residence Hall Association, it was
presented in a manner leading
many to believe that their input
would make a difference in the
outcome. Apparently, this was just
an early warning disguised as a
request for feedback.
Time for affirmative action to go
Tara Gray
Class of ’00
Chris
HUFFINES
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.^rrrut^i^ HEX! STEPHEN KING (V\OviE
I t looks like
affirmative
action just
hit the glass
ceiling. Ac
cording to a
study released
recently by the
University of
Michigan, in
dividuals who
possess an implicit racial preju
dice but are not not aware of it
tend to unconsciously discrimi
nate. This is yet another proof
that Affirmative Action, passed in
the sixties, has come to the end of
its operational lifetime.
The study was performed on
college students who were tested
for conscious and unconscious
racial bias.
The college students, who
were all white, were then asked to
interact with black peers, in ca
hoots with the researchers, to per
form simple tasks.
Researcher Penelope Espinoza
summed up the results by stating,
“results indicate that our implicit
prejudice scale was a significant
predictor of the nature of the so
cial interactions between white
subjects and the black partici
pants. Subjects who had high lev
els of hidden prejudice scale were
disliked by the black students,
their interactions were rated nega
tively, and they displayed more
negative nonverbal behaviors
during the interaction.”
Espinoza went on to say the
subjects who had a lower level of
unconscious prejudice were rated
much better by black interactors.
If this finding is applied to the
law, and it will be, it will be like
dropping a rabid bull into a china
shop. The entire face of affirma
tive action has just changed be
cause many prejudiced individu
als who could be accused of
discrimination now have an air
tight legal defense.
If they are only implicitly prej
udiced, then they are not aware of
any discrimination arising from
their unconscious bias. Therefore,
they can argue they are not re
sponsible for their discriminatory
behavior.
It might not hold up all the
time, but this defense will get
many bigots off the hook. Affir
mative action simply cannot work
in this environment.
But affirmative action was due
to retire soon anyways. Thankful
ly, the kind of heavy-handed ap
proach to racial equality once
necessary in the 1960s is no
longer the best approach. What
required troops and blood can
now be accomplished much more
subtly.
That is not to say that racism
has been conquered.
Prejudice is still riding on the
back of this nation. But the claws
of this beast are no longer around
America’s neck.
The stick that is affirmative ac
tion can finally be replaced by the
carrot. Affirmative action reme
dies discrimination in a reactive
manner, primarily through pun
ishing offenders. But that route
will only breed resentment — re
sentment that has already begun
to appear. #
A carrot, a proactive, positive
reward for behavior that pro
motes equality, is what is needed.
Whether this carrot comes in
the form of tax breaks or govern
ment incentives or some other
form is irrelevant. What is impor
tant is that prejudice is not elimi
nated by creating a racial schism.
Unfortunately, this route is not
the easy route. There are individ
uals who will use race and racism
to promote ideologies and poli
tics, and it is in their best interests
to keep affirmative action in
place, to keep the power that gov
ernment was forced to shoulder
in the years after slavery and
again during the Civil Rights Era.
That power has corrupted
those individuals, and it has be
gun to corrupt the fabric of soci
ety. It is time to break the stick
and throw it away.
Chris Huffines is a senior
speech communication major.
I