By Ron
Richards
I was writing some impressions about
Ky Fesenko recently, after watching
him play for the Utah Flash. I
mentioned that I thought that Fess,
as we call him, had a very high
ceiling and was destined for a very
good NBA career. I hope so.
There are many very talented NBA
wannabees that never quite make it.
The woods are full of them, bones
rotting away in the underbrush,
picked on by the wolves that prey
unmercifully on those who haven’t
got what it takes to survive a
brutal, Darwinian environment.
Why do some survive and then
flourish, and others don’t? Seems
simple on the outside, either you
have the talent, the physical
skills, the necessary basketball
smarts, or you don’t. Right?
Not necessarily.
There are some players with
overwhelming talent like Lebron or
Kobe, who would survive no matter
what team drafted them, simply
because of who they are. They are
few and far between, perhaps two or
three players in a decade have that
kind of talent.
I love baseball as well as
basketball, and the comparison
between the two sports as far as
newcomers to the sport is dramatic.
Very, very few baseball players are
ever drafted or signed directly to
the major-league team, for the
skills and knowledge you have to
possess to be a great baseball
player, to hit major league
pitching, are simply overwhelming to
a rookie. In fact, their rookies on
the major league level have years of
minor league experience behind them,
and even then most can’t handle the
shock of major league play.
Basketball is different in this
respect…….That the game doesn’t
require as many learned skills as
baseball, and that great physical
talent can overcome a lack of skills
and be learned on-the-job. Baseball
is also different in that while it
is a team game, any great baseball
player can jump teams and instantly
be just as effective for his new
team as his previous team. The
skills transfer completely.
Basketball, while a team game in
some respects like baseball, is much
more interdependent on team play,
and many players do well on one team
while failing miserably on another.
That would be unheard of in
baseball. That team play is one of
the most wonderful things about
basketball, but it is inherently the
game’s greatest weakness.
You read me correctly. Basketball’s
greatest strength is also its
greatest weakness.
It allows players with major flaws
in their game to become stars, earn
millions of dollars, acquire major
egos, and in the process bring down
the greatest team game ever devised.
Baseball has for over a century
developed a farm system, consisting
of several levels of minor league
play, where each player eventually
rises as far as his talent can take
him. It’s a wonderful system, where
if you can play major league
baseball, you probably will. Sure,
there are things like injuries, drug
and alcohol abuse, other problems
that get in the way just like with
all people in all walks of life.
But, if you have that special
talent, the odds are good you can
play major league baseball. What is
really interesting is that most of
the time the best players in MLB are
not the highest draft picks, they
are made by hard work and
development in the minors.
Basketball?
That farm system has consisted of
college basketball, and with four
years of playing for the alma mater,
there was a chance depending on how
good your coaching was, how high the
level of opponents and experience, a
very good player like Tim Duncan
could be ready to step right in and
play NBA basketball. Was even Tim
Duncan a finished and polished
product? Not hardly.
And then the NBA got greedy and
started drafting high school
players.
How many made it? Not very many, and
even then the ones that made it like
Kobe, T-Mac, Moses Malone, struggled
for a few years before they made it.
It’s been a known fact that almost
all high school draftees, even the
most talented, struggle for several
years before playing well. LeBron
James is an exception of
unprecedented level, a staggering
talent.
Those woods are strewn with the
likes of Daryl Dawkins, perhaps the
most talented basketball player
drafted directly from high school,
who never became a shadow of the
player he could have been.
This brings us to the obvious
conclusion, and the reason I’m
writing this article. The NBA
D-League is long past due, and an
idea of incredible brilliance for a
league that has collectively had it
head stuck where the sun doesn’t
shine for decades. The ramifications
are obvious, and the direction of
the league is also obvious.
Lots of things must be obvious, eh?
Not to the NBA. Let me help, just a
touch.
Each NBA team should have a D-league
team, at the very least. Right now,
teams like the Celtics and Jazz
share a minor league team, but that
is par for a league that is so
greedy and wealthy that it thinks
the cash flow will never stop. Each
team needs to have its own minor
league team, and at the very least
run the major league team’s offense
and defense, just like the Utah
Flash. Winning games should be
important, but developing the young
players of the parent NBA team
should be first priority.
Most importantly, work on those
skills that each young NBA player
lacks. Brilliant? No, Watson, it’s
as plain as the wart on your face.
It’s simple, even the Knick’s front
office should understand the
concept, bizarre as that sounds.
There are very few young baseball
players with major league ability
not playing in the farm system of a
MLB team, wringing the very most out
of his talent.
There are literally hundreds of very
talented men who could play in the
NBA with the right development, who
are either playing in Europe,
playing in one the minor leagues and
forgotten, or completely out of
basketball.
The D-League should be the first
step for the NBA, and the player’s
union needs to get on the band
wagon. Stop forcing the NBA to limit
player’s travel between the two
leagues, pay the D-League’s players
out of the NBA coffers so that being
a D-League player is attractive,
incorporate a skills and physical
development school with each
franchise, instead of a few
privately owned schools scattered
helter skelter across the land.
Improve the product, and the
increased attendance and interest
will pay for itself.
It is this simple….
The overwhelming majority of NBA
draftees and free agents haven’t got
a prayer of playing in the NBA. They
are thrown to the wolves without a
hope of defending themselves. If by
some miracle they survive, they are
flawed in some respects, with little
chance of learning new skills unless
they have the drive to learn them on
their own time. That, my friends,
doesn’t happen but by the Grace of
God. Why drive yourself to new
heights when you’re already making
millions of dollars? When you’re
told you’re wonderful and great?
There are very few NBA players with
great skills on both sides of the
ball, flawed, they still play and
make millions.
There are hundreds of MLB players
with great skills on both sides of
the ball, it’s the rule and not the
exception.
There is a reason, and an easy
solution.
There is a time for reaping profits,
and for sowing a few easy solutions.
Just get with the program, NBA.
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