With controversy swirling around the NCAA as a result of an ongoing FBI corruption probe, former President Barack Obama offered a possible solution to the structural problems associated with college basketball.
While addressing a recent sports-policy conference at MIT, Obama suggested that the NBA could alleviate much of the burden on the NCAA by creating a farm system for professional basketball.
Obama said, “It’s just not a sustainable way of doing business. Then when everybody acts shocked that some kid from extraordinarily poor circumstances who’s got 5, 10, 15 million dollars waiting for him is going to be circled by everybody in a context in which people are making billions of dollars, it’s not good.”
According to Bleacher Report, “Obama did note the creation of a new junior league for the NBA ‘won’t solve all the problems’ but will make it easier to stop acting as if all student-athletes are handling both roles in college.”
Perhaps unbeknownst to Obama, the NBA already has a developmental league, known as the G League. Though, the G League has not exactly produced a ton of NBA-ready talent.
As Bleacher Report explains:
The NCAA has been under intense scrutiny dating back to September, when the FBI arrested 10 people in connection to a two-year probe into corruption and bribery in college basketball.
Per Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde and Pete Thamel, documents and financial records from former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and ASM Sports—Miller’s agency—indicate at least 20 Division I programs and more than 25 players could be in violation of NCAA rules.
Forde and Thamel noted a balance sheet from ASM Sports included the subheading ‘Loan to Players,’ which ‘listed several who were in high school or college as receiving four-figure and five-figure payments.’
When the FBI investigation concludes, dozens of high-profile schools, players, and coaches, are expected to be implicated.
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