A Stern Lecture on Minor League Basketball
The owners want Jordans from a system that's failing everybody. The key to better basketball rests in the Commissioner's hands.

OPINION

Brian Ross
Sr. Editor

Basketball is increasingly depressing to cover. The college system, as can be seen from the rotating fines and firings of the summer, is horribly corrupt and broken.

Colleges cashing in on being the developmental system for the NBA have tainted their game. Who looks at a college basketball player, right or wrong, and doesn't assume that they're on a free ride through the school so the institution can pick up some green from their basketball talents?

More and more kids try to bypass the college system and take their chances in the NBA. Major league basketball, anxious to keep promising prospects, puts them on major league benches without much seasoning. LeBron may be the exception to the rule of a system that chews up a lot of kids and spits them out who might have turned out differently with a decent development system in place.

In college baseball, there are players who come to the game to get an education. Baseball's more developed farm system, however, allows players who don't either have the grades or the interest to attend a college or university, to get into a system that develops their talents and works on their character to prepare them for a real shot at the MLB.

There are a lot of basketball players who have no business being in college. They go through the motions of being in school to refine their talents on the boards. More and more, they don't want to wait for the perqs of the NBA.

Why should they? Why does a gifted athlete, who makes the conscious choice not to attend a college or university because they can earn ten lifetimes worth of cash as long as they keep playing ball, have to lose four years worth of time and money to support college athletics?

The NBA doesn't need benchloads of babies, either. Stacking teams with underdeveloped players brings down the level of the major league game, which is already suffering. Close your eyes and imagine really hard (much like the NBA refs do): You might miss the four or five extra steps that players take to look a bit like Michael Jordan.

Basketball looks more like a street game of three-on-three these days. If you need any reminders of what basketball used to look like visit any CBA team, where the game is still played as a team sport, not as a vehicle to generate flashy clips for the late edition of SportsCenter.

Commissioner Stern bemoans the change from power forward to diaper forward. He talks of setting an age limit of 20 to the NBA.

The age limit, though, comes with no discussion by the Commissioner of what to do with players who, for whatever reason, don't belong in college ball.

The NBA created the National Basketball Development League two years ago, after talks to buy the CBA with Isaiah Thomas, then owner of the league, failed.

On paper, the purpose of the NBDL is to provide some sort of training ground for players who don't belong in college, or for those who need additional work after college.

It would be the perfect place for 17, 18, and 19 year-olds who need development. Placing players like LeBron James into the NBDL might even fill up the stadium so that fans aren't being seated to fill up camera views of the court on ESPN-2.

For the NBDL to really work as a minor league, there has to be commitment from the NBA to broaden the league to have teams in the minor league directly affiliated with major league clubs, developing talent for each of the NBA franchises. Thus far, that hasn't happened.

The players union's relationship to the NBDL is another issue. Players in the NBDL are not part of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). In minor baseball, fifteen players from the 40 man roster are part of the CBA. There would seem to be incentive to see more the 17-19 year-old players find their way into the NBDL, which might extend the lifetime of several careers of older players in the league. Coming up with policies that the Players Union can live with are another important part of the puzzle missing.

Commissioner Stern walks a fine line. College basketball is a multi-billion dollar industry in its own right. Providing an avenue that undercuts their recruiting monopoly might render college basketball as impotent as college baseball. Tinkering with the NCAA money machine might cause shockwaves in the well-established system.

Which may be why the NBDL and the Commissioner's office routinely duck MLN's requests to go on the record about developing an affiliated minor league system to support basketball.

The State of Minor Basketball

The state of minor basketball is a fine mess. In the last five years, we've seen the International Basketball League (IBL), the American Basketball Association 2000 (ABA-2000), the National Rookie League (NRL) and the Southwest Basketball League (SBL) go down in flames after short lives. The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), the oldest and most distinguished league, was almost extinguished by Isaiah, and limps along as a shadow of its former self.

The USBL chugs along in the summertime, and will be joined by the World Basketball Association (WBA) in 2004.

None of the leagues put enough money on the table to keep a lot of players from hitting the road and playing in the international leagues. NBA clout, and the potential to be part of a well-defined system that feeds the league, are the compensating factors that would energize the developmental system.

If these leagues are failing or struggling, many major sports pundits would say that this is indicative of the fact that these leagues serve no purpose. They do serve a purpose, even with college ball chugging along happily on all-four cylinders.

Developmental basketball serves both a practical and a financial need. Developing players for the NBA is its practical purpose. It would generate buzz and brand loyalty for the NBA in mid-size and small markets, much as affiliated baseball creates additional buzz for teams in ancillary markets.

College already does that. Or does it? College programs are tied into the history and tradition of the institution. Often college teams are populated by spotty levels of ability: A few rising stars, a few journeymen, and a lot of players for whom this should be the last stop on the road.

Minor pro teams aggregate the better talent from college that was just shy of high draft pick, and from the high schools, and refines them further until they have value to the NBA.

Too Easy?

Basketball players get more dropped into their laps quickly than players in just about any sport. Talk about being a high draftee, and your financial fortunes come in without so much as suiting up.

College football players, even ones high in the draft, usually have to play for a while before they establish their name and value to both teams and to sponsors offering endorsement contracts. There are more players on teams, making the market for endorsements that much tougher.

Most baseball players pay their dues in the minors, even if they've been big athletes in college programs. Even a much-touted player like the Marlin's Dontrelle Willis may have to play two or three years before he sees substantial secondary revenue from his career.

LeBron James already has his financial life "made" before he made one NBA basket. The jump from college to the Pros, or high school to the pros, is a huge jump. Beyond the boards, it's a big adjustment emotionally and socially. Paying your dues is not just about teaching game skills. It's about earning your place in the world, and developing, as you mature into your late-teens and twenties, some emotional balance that prepares you for a long and healthy career in a sport.

The NBA, more than any other major league sport, seems to suffer through a lot of scandals, major and minor, that might never happen if they had a development system that worked harder to mold the whole player before they set foot on league courts.

When colleges and universities ran a handful of elite programs that had standards and the college life, many players got that discipline from their time in the academic minors.

Today, it seems like any school with accreditation and a gym who wants to cash in on the basketball goldmine can run a basketball program. Great dilution amongst the schools of NCAA division one system has increased competition for the better talent. The result seems to be that the clowns have taken over the circus. When coaches get fired for displeasing parents and their talented offspring, the system is breaking down. The NBA is not in a position to exert direct influence to fix the college system.

Minor basketball can provide improvements to the quality of players in the National Basketball Association. It can succeed with a better structure. Not that we're being hired as consultants to the NBA Commissioner's office, but if we were, we would have these recommendations:

• Form the NPBA - The NBA should work with the minor leagues to establish the National Professional Basketball Association - An amalgam of officially sanctioned leagues that develop players from Class A to Class AAA, just as is done in baseball;
  
• Buy Minor League Contracts - The NBA teams should own outright player contracts in the AAA teams. They might partially own players in the AA and Class A leagues. This would provide some direct investment connection to the players, and some relief to minor clubs trying to put a high quality product on with limited budgets and smaller venues. Work out rules for call-ups of players, including financial compensation to teams if the players are not fully under contract to the NBA.
  
• Merge the CBA and the NBDL; Use the Franchise System - Expand AAA basketball to a team per NBA franchise. Make affiliation with each minor team to a major league club. Turn over the operation of the AAA system to the CBA. The old ownership groups that reassumed control of the league do basketball right. The NBA and SFX are not regional ownership, and do not have enough ties to the community. NBDL basketball, right down to its plain-vanilla, generic team logos, is a bore. Create teams with names and personalities that fit their communities.
  
• Validate & Develop Supporting Leagues - The USBL and the WBA can feed a new, expanded CBA with players. A rookie league with Class-A level players is also a good idea as it feeds replacements to the other leagues hit with call-ups.
  
• Make all players move through the system - Minor league systems generate great players. The system is only as good as the league using it. If the developmental system is bypassed to let a talent hit the courts immediately, it undercuts the purpose of the system. Players in systems like the affiliated baseball leagues can move quickly, even in a matter of months. The lessons that they learn along the way still serve them well when they hit the big leagues.

At the start of every basketball season, our eyes turn on New York, and the Commissioner's Office, looking for some sign that basketball will develop a system that establishes great players, broadens the league's reach into cities around the U.S., and a creates deeper love of the sport for generations to come.

So far, it appears that more of the status quo is to come. What a shame.