16 yr old signs contract to play Pro Basketball

Im against it. Its unfair to every college player out there and doesn't do the kid any favors. Give a 16 year old an NBA salary and see how he ends up....

I'm agreeing with Icey on this. From the kids perspective. The kid isn't going to get that money. They parents are. The parents will end up with new cars, designer clothes, nice trips. It will all be spend very soon. And that million is only $600,000 after taxes. If you try hard enough, you can just spend $600,000. Then it's gone. The kid not only loses the ability to play college ball. He can't play high school anymore either. Now a young kid is going to shipped across country to be all by himself. Who is going to watch over this 16 year old while his is playing in another city. How much trouble can an unsupervised 16 year old with some cash get into ?

Honestly enough with the colleges. Fuck them. They don’t have a right to our money. All these fucking tax breaks all these guaranteed loans and what do you get…a bunch of brand new state of the art stadiums, arenas built on the backs of the tax payers. Let these schools have to face the market like everybody else.

i guess it depends on what types of parents the kid has. if they are like the parents of gary coleman then yeah that kid is fucked. he'll be lucky to have enough coins to buy a scratch off that will get him back some of his lost earnings. if the parents are good people they'll do the right things.

also i would think that the team overseas would provide a handler to oversee the kid.

Some how MLB teams sign kids right out of HS and college baseball still thrives. College isn’t for everyone. And “one and done” is so cynical and stupid.

Not a big deal. MLB can sign 16 year-olds from Latin America, and it happens to teenagers in Europe for basketball, soccer, etc. If I were him I would be more concerned with compensation structure. It sounds like it is not all cash and likely includes equity in an unproven league and crypto bullshit also.

There are pros and cons.

If the kid can make a couple of hundred-grand to a million-plus, he can always go to college and get a degree if he doesn’t end up making it as a pro – hard to say if he has a better chance making it as a pro as a college-player vs a semi-pro-player – he can end up going to college and not making it as a pro and have zero-dollars to show for it.

Depending on the kid’s background and family situation, the structure of college may be a better fit – but if he has a solid family behind him decent chance it can somehow be worked out for his family, or at least one parent, to be w/ him - there are also top high-school players that move away from home to play at high-school prep-academies (sometimes in other states) known for their high-school basketball programs.

In Europe, top-players are often playing professionally as teenagers – there are also other sports like tennis where kids turn pro as teens – it may not be apples to apples but it happens.

In the past we’ve had players go straight from high school to the NBA and have solid careers and not necessarily get into trouble (many get into trouble even in their 20s after having gone to college) – one-and-dones at times also enter the NBA as 19 or 20 year-olds.

As for me – if I have the option of getting paid or playing for free; I’d likely choose getting paid if I felt it didn’t significantly hinder my pro prospects.

It's a great idea. Kids at 16 who want to focus on basketball can actually do that and not have to worry about the other BS. While making there money.

I think this is a bad idea - as it will only help a few of the top players on their path to the NBA. In my view, it adds more kids who wanna be in the NBA, to the list of those who don’t make it.

However, if they have ex-strippers as cheerleaders - and allow the setup up a VIP room for private dances (for fans) - then I might go to a few games!

Let’s be honest - one and done players aren’t students. They don’t care about classes. They spend their time in the gym - they bang some college hotties - play video games - and that’s their college year.

What could possibly go wrong, most sixteen year olds aren’t ready to make decisions about what they should eat for dinner let alone how they’re going to handle their education and manage their future
My best guess is here comes another group of people who don’t have the skills to support themselves should be interesting

Devil's advocate: Consider time-value-of-money.

It depends on how that money is used. If the kid's parents are smart enough to invest that $600K at age 16, that money would be worth about $8M at age 60 compounded at 6%. It's hard to comprehend that money grows exponentially and that starting early makes a huge difference. The kid may end up with greater net worth than an MD who finishes residency at age 30, $200K in debt.

There may be many scenarios where investing that money early in life is a far better choice than attending college. It's a great opportunity for a kid with the right athletic talent and parents with financial savvy.

^. Yes, in a perfect world, the parents continue to support their child. They invest all of that money, and later in life he is rich. But we all know that is not what is going to happen. I've learned more about this contract. Its' payable over 4 years with only the first year guaranteed. So he'l get $250k, about $180k after tax. You know he's already bot a sports car. The parents probably already have a new car also. And they are going shopping for new clothes next week. I'm sure there is an agent involved so he gets a cut too. Then they will have extra living expenses for being is a another city form his home. So that first year money is already spent. If he washes out, then he's on his own with nothing. Not even a high school education. Sure they are promising him scholarship money to continue college. But he will have to get in. If he's recruited, the college will make sure he gets in, and give him private tutors to make sure he passes.

This may work out for some kids. But I'm thinking a lot will end up worse off. JMHO. Plus, now the kids can actually make a little money in college. He hasn't even explored that option. If he is truly a star player, he might get a six figure endorsement deal in college now.

If it starts to have an effect on college basketball then NCAA will change the rules to pay players.

So most of the debate here centers around "lets protect the 16 yr old by keeping the money away from him and in the pockets of those who know better" also known as pimping. Didn't realize so many if you were pimps!

I’m in favor of letting people make their own decisions. If they blow the money, so what? It’s theirs to blow. Gymnastics, tennis, golf, baseball, euro basketball, soccer all have professional players early in their teens and the world hasn’t ended. Only the USA feels the need to be paternalistic, and only about football and basketball players. Seems to be protection of the college sports industry rather than actually trying to protect the players.

Exactly Jimmy. It’s to protect the big business of NCAA Div 1 Football and Men’s basketball. And their profits prop up all the other NCAA sports.
We don’t need college golf teams, for instance, with million $ budgets flying all over the country to play other college golf teams. It’s an insane waste of time and money.

I played rugby in college. We were a club team with a couple hundred $ of extracurricular money from the school. We road tripped in our own cars to play college and club teams within a couple hours driving distance. It was great and proportionate with the real world