Latest BIGSPORTSWRITER rant: SATs, racism and Derrick Rose

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Posts from about Derrick Rose started yesterday, and he started one of his penchant monologues today. It ended around 5 p.m. EST, so scroll to the tweets and look through them if you'd like. I'm too damn lazy to do a Storify or anything like that.

I, for one, agree with a lot of what he has to say. Rose gets a lot of heat for his (supposedly) faked test score. This is a kid from a Chicago Public School in Englewood (read: "Holy shit, he actually made it through high school?") and as BIGSPORTSWRITER said would not have had to take the test in the first place if the NBA could still draft out of high school. Basketball is his job, not acing a standardized test.

I've always thought SATs and ACTs were bullshit, anyway. They don't test for knowledge. They test to see if you can pass a formulaic set of questions that are tailored toward a particular idea of what is supposed to be "smart." That idea, in my opinion, is severely flawed and does a horrible job of accounting for the varying skillsets of different students. And that's not to mention the fact that the tests favor the socioeconomically advantaged (read: "Rich white kids who can afford test prep classes and all that crap.")

In my opinion, it's an unfair attack on Rose and incredibly stupid to go after someone's character as a human being because of their score on a mindless test. Anyone else got thoughts on this?

 

I agree with him and you, but I am wondering if anything precipitated the rant. This particular rant seemed to come out of nowhere.

Also, where does journalism come into play in all this?

 

The entire structure of amateur athletics in America is so bloody stupid and bordereline criminal. I've actually come around to the idea that Calipari might be one of the good guys because he's helping the athletes mock the system that uses the shit out of them. That might not be honorable, but it might actually be more honest.

 

My newness is showing, it seems. Posted it here because it was a sports guy on Twitter and I saw some fellow sports guys arguing about it on there, and I didn't have a clue where else to put it.

As for the rant, it did come out of nowhere. I'm guessing it hinges on him seeing replies to his first post:

"I'm not sure there's a more endearing, honest, unprocessed, unaffected budding star out there right now, than Derrick Rose."

 

I've thought that a lot. Calipari might cheat his ass off, but that's like a cashier taking some change out of a Super K-Mart drawer in order to pay for bus fare.

 

Yeah, this is definitely a "Sports and News" post. Sorry, I suck.

 

KILL HIM!!! KILL HIM WITH FIRE!!!!!!!

 

My bad. This should make it better:

 

It's OK. Just never make that mistake again.

Anyway, I am 100% on board with the portrayal of John Calipari as the NCAA's Robin Hood in hair gel. We have no issue with vocational schools but look down upon places such as Findlay Prep as though they're destroying kids. Don't both function on the same principles?

I love watching college basketball, but I'm all for the creation of basketball minor leagues or something similar. Perhaps a deal could be struck that schools could fund and house those teams. There are so many possibilities, most of which go unexplored as the NCAA clings to its tradition in the name of greed.

 

I was literally talking to one of Calipari's former players recently, and he put it like this: "I was a screw up in high school. I came from a really shitty life. But he gave me a chance, and if he hadn't, I have no idea what would have happened to me. A lot of schools didn't want to give me a chance. They kept saying I was going to screw up when I got there, so they didn't want to take me. Coach Calipari told me "If you screw up when you get here, that's on you. You've blown your chance. But until that happens, I have faith you're going to make it." And this kid stayed a year, and then he was off to the NBA, but Calipari constantly checks on him, continues mentoring him, comes to his games and listens when he's frustrated.

All the La Familia stuff that Wetzel wrote about at the Final Four last year, that makes sense in a way. The kids don't want to be in college, they know the system is bullshit, and so they are happy to play for a coach who basically says "Look, the system is bullshit, but let's work together and I bet it will benefit us both."

As for BIGSPORTSWRITER'S rant about Rose, I liked the part about his father being an iron worker, because it's so true that there are plenty of people who absolutely delight in telling you how dumb an athlete like Derrick Rose must be, but would smash an ash tray over your head in a bar if you said the same thing about their factory working grandpa.

 

Don't like Calipari much, but suddenly I could buy into that angle, too.

 

The thing that drives me craziest is that the preps-to-pros system worked. Let's take a look at the players who were drafted out of high school. And I'm not talking about the "You know who else didn't go to business school: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady ..." crowd. A lot of fuss was made about the volume of players to declare out of high school in 2005, the last year it was allowed. Supporters of the preps-to-pros ban felt validated when the group struggled early. Let's take a look at that list now:

• Martell Webster, 6th overall pick: Has not lived up to his billing but will make $1.6 million this season for the Wizards.
• Andrew Bynum, 10th: Has emerged as one of the top five (maybe even top two) centers in the league.
• Gerald Green, 18th: Was the poster child for not leaving out of high school but has since returned and is a leading contender for a breakout 2012-13.
• C.J. Miles, 34th: Has started 159 games and is expected to start for the Cavaliers.
• Monta Ellis, 40th: Has averaged 19.5 points a game for his career as one of the NBA's top pure scorers.
• Louis Williams, 45th: Was among the hottest free agency commodities after emerging as an elite sixth man for the 76ers.
• Andray Blatche, 49th: Had an up-and-down run with the Wizards that netted him a lot of money but led to his release but still found his way into a league-minimum $1.1 million contract with the Nets.
• Amir Johnson, 56th: Remains raw on offense but provides rebounding, defense and hustle and started the past two seasons, though he'll lose that job with Jonas Valanciunas joining the Raptors.

The low earner on that list, career-wise, is Miles, who has made $5.4 million in the NBA and probably about $2 million in other leagues. Every one of those players struggled in the early going, but they all will be in the NBA next season. Three (Bynum, Miles and Ellis) should be starters, with two others (Green, Williams and Johnson) playing significant roles off the bench.

NBA teams knew the risks when they drafted these guys, which is why five of the eight fell to the second round. Jermaine O'Neal spent four years on the Trail Blazers' bench before signing with and starring for the Pacers. But they're all successes, more so than many of the players selected ahead of them.

Would college have helped or hindered them? I don't know that it's easy to say. It would have cut at least a year out of their earning potential. As I see it, the only winners in the age limit are the NCAA and CBS.