ADVERTISEMENT

Lebron James says NCAA "is corrupt"

lurkeraspect84

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2014
52,627
59,233
113
"The NCAA is corrupt, we know that. Sorry it's going to make headlines. But it's corrupt."

https://www.gq.com/story/lebron-james-ncaa

Also echoed here in GQ's Calipari story.


"And in February, Yahoo Sports published a report that documented players on more than 20 elite programs—including Kentucky—as accepting money, trips, or meals from agents. To the casual observer, these indictments became something of a scarlet letter attached to the nation’s top programs.

This scarlet letter, of course, is mostly sanctimonious bullshit. The NCAA makes $1 billion annually (most of which comes from the NCAA tournament television contract and is redistributed to member universities). And while most NCAA sports do not make money, the two “revenue sports,” football and men’s basketball, do. The star players who help generate that money are paid far less than their market values, getting compensated in scholarships, room and board, and living expenses. Specifically, it is this gulf between a player’s market value and what a university is permitted to “pay” him that creates the black market. NCAA president Mark Emmert said the FBI probe indicates “systematic failures,” but the failure seems to be more in how the system itself is set up."

...

"After he retired, Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA, railed against collegiate sports, calling it an “airtight racket of supplying cheap athletic labor.” It’s a familiar American dynamic: Elite teenage basketball players, typically black, go to institutions of higher learning where they play for coaches, usually older white men, who are incentivized to attract the best talent they can."

https://www.gq.com/story/john-calipari-kentucky-profile
 
Asked about the most outrageous offer he ever received as a high schooler, James offered a rather revealing chuckle, but ultimately stayed mum, saying only: "Me and my mom was poor, I'll tell you that. If they expected me to step a foot on a college campus, and not go to the NBA, then we weren't going to be poor for long."
 
Calipari has this one moonshot idea that could get him into some trouble with the NCAA. He wants the children of every player who has ever played for him—UMass, Memphis, Kentucky—to get full scholarships to any college in the country through his foundation. He doesn’t care if the NCAA might consider it “extra benefits” and come after him. He sees it as an extension of his calling.
 
Calipari has this one moonshot idea that could get him into some trouble with the NCAA. He wants the children of every player who has ever played for him—UMass, Memphis, Kentucky—to get full scholarships to any college in the country through his foundation. He doesn’t care if the NCAA might consider it “extra benefits” and come after him. He sees it as an extension of his calling.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tw3301
Tell him to tell that story to the millions of parents paying for their kids college education. Sorry these athletes have it so damn rough, free education, athletic meal cards, etc....
Cry me a damn river.
 
  • Like
Reactions: toonces11
I want the NCAA to go away, but I don't feel bad for any student-athlete. They're living large. We should all be so lucky.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wrbchWolfPack81
I want the NCAA to go away, but I don't feel bad for any student-athlete. They're living large. We should all be so lucky.
You’re sort of right... basketball & football players are living large.
Using baseball as an example. A D1 team gets 11 scholarships for their team. Most players split scholarships, with as many as 4 kids sharing them. They still practice & travel as much as basketball & football but they’re not living the life as those athletes.
 
Asked about the most outrageous offer he ever received as a high schooler, James offered a rather revealing chuckle, but ultimately stayed mum, saying only: "Me and my mom was poor, I'll tell you that. If they expected me to step a foot on a college campus, and not go to the NBA, then we weren't going to be poor for long."
Didn't he drive a brand new hummer in high school?
 
You’re sort of right... basketball & football players are living large.
Using baseball as an example. A D1 team gets 11 scholarships for their team. Most players split scholarships, with as many as 4 kids sharing them. They still practice & travel as much as basketball & football but they’re not living the life as those athletes.
Agree
 
What about Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA?
I said that the NCAA is probably corrupt, Lebron doesn’t know any more about that than an average Joe from the water cooler. Lebron has an opinion, I don’t think I give a shot about his opinion.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lurkeraspect84
I said that the NCAA is probably corrupt, Lebron doesn’t know any more about that than an average Joe from the water cooler. Lebron has an opinion, I don’t think I give a shot about his opinion.
I partially agree. I'm sure he doesn't know everything (how could he), but he has been around basketball coaches, players, etc. who's been in the game a long, long time. I'd say he knows a bit more than Joe from the water cooler. :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: rockycard
Anyone read the second link from the OP?

GQ just did a great story about Calipari.

They refer to him as "the devil" and talks about telling someone to not go to mass with him.

" He took offense to the counter-argument that these young men should be gracious for a free education."

"I asked (Anthony) Davis about Calipari’s embrace of players like him, and why Calipari was so hated. Davis laughed. “To see now how college basketball’s been shaped after Cal, it’s funny,” Davis said. “Everyone’s trying to be one and done. Everyone wants to go to Kentucky and leave. Even the people who ripped on Cal for it, they’re trying to do it with their programs now! College basketball has started to take shape around the way that Cal is. It’s funny now when people try to say that. They’re using his tactics because it works.”"


The Penance of John Calipari

CaitOppermann_2017_12_06_GQStyle_Calipari_DSC3240.jpg


:)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cat_Incognito
Upset? Laughing Some perceptions are golden.
You weren’t upset but it’s funny because you bring up Cal or Kentucky all the time on this board. Often times in threads that have nothing to do with Cal or a Kentucky. I know this thread kind of has a Cal theme to it due to the OP article but that post still made me chuckle.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 829305
You weren’t upset but it’s funny because you bring up Cal or Kentucky all the time on this board. Often times in threads that have nothing to do with Cal or a Kentucky. I know this thread kind of has a Cal theme to it due to the OP article but that post still made me chuckle.

Crazy I bring up all things UK, huh? Wonder why?

And I do disagree about bringing them up that have nothing to do with UK. I usually just respond to those that do. I will welcome links where I brought him/UK up out of the blue.
 
Last edited:
ADVERTISEMENT