In which I question Sam Eifling’s logic

December 20th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

A somewhat flawed idea proposed over at Slate by Sam Eifling: stop following college basketball and get on the AAU train.

Seriously. That’s what he proposed in this column entitled “The Death of College Basketball.”

OK, let’s talk about this here and shamelessly rip FireJoeMorgan.

Here’s how far college basketball has fallen: Fans and pundits are going gaga over 7-foot super-prospect Greg Oden, a guy whose career at Ohio State will last less than a year. The NBA’s new age threshold means that high schoolers can’t jump straight to the pros. Still, for immortal players, college will be nothing more than a one-year way station on the path to a huge payday.

Well, isn’t it better for college hoops to get Oden for at least one year, then not to get him at all? I’d think so.

And how can you say college basketball has fallen because of people’s enthusiasm for Greg Oden? He’s one of the best players to come around in years, there’s going to be excitement for a player like that at any level. Yeah, Oden will probably only stick around for a year, but, if the rule hadn’t changed, he’d be banished to the Toronto Raptors right now. And we wouldn’t see him on national television once this year. Not once.

So by going to college, he’s doing far more service to a basketball fan then he would in the pro ranks. If you catch my drift.

But why should you care? For starters, check out a list of former AAU players who made it to the NBA: Amare Stoudamire, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal, Shawn Kemp. Every great player—even those who for the past decade have bypassed college—signs up. A hard-core AAU fan would have already seen Greg Oden for years, just as he would have been well-acquainted with the last such phenom. (LeBron James’ AAU team from the age of 10: the Shooting Stars.) The AAU circuit has also given us a tantalizing glimpse at the game’s famous flameouts. Don’t you wish you’d seen, say, poor Leon Smith as a 16-year-old, to know what all the hoopla was about? Or Kemp, back when he gave a crap about basketball?

Wow Sam. Amare Stoudamire, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal and Shawn Kemp all played AAU ball? Great. Two of them also played college ball as did oh, about 1,000,000 other NBA players. Which, I won’t chart here, because the list would go on for days.

And no, I really wouldn’t have liked to see Kemp when he ‘gave a crap about basketball.’ I don’t know if the man ever ‘gave a crap about basketball.’ Although, I’d like to think his years with the Sonics were rather productive.

And no way would I want to see Kemp as a young teen over Greg Oden playing this year in college basketball. No way. I can sit on my ass at home and watch Greg Oden’s magic. I would have had to drive myself all around Northern Inidana to catch up with Kemp when he supposedly gave a damn.

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