The Enes Kanter Situation: Is The NCAA Corrupt or Just Plain Stupid?
By Paul Jordan
I’ll give you three scenarios and you tell me which athlete should play their respective sport.
One, let’s call this NCAA athlete, athlete A. Athlete A was the number one recruit in college basketball last year and is now attending Kansas University. Athlete A’s mother just so happens to be really good friends with NBA star Carmelo Anthony’s agent. Athletes A’s mother also makes a decent living, but not enough for her son to be driving a Mercedes-Benz to high school a week before he made his choice to attend Kansas. This is of course after he had switched high schools a few times. Athlete A’s personal “advisor” just so happens to be that NBA agent mentioned earlier. Athlete A gained over $5,757.58 dollars in benefits.
Yet, the NCAA declared athlete A eligible even after all the red flags. Athlete A only has to sit out 30% of his games and pay back the money he received to a charity of his choice and probably out of his scholarship money. How cute.
Two, let’s call this NCAA athlete; athlete B, athlete B has quite a rap sheet. First, athlete B got caught cheating on a term paper, has been academically ineligible three times, bought a stole laptop and then tossed it out a window when the police came to investigate and then got shopped around by his father for an insane amount of money, somewhere in the range of $180,000 to $200,000 depending on what school you ask.
Yet, the NCAA declared athlete B eligible and literally took less than a week to do it. Funny, because the SEC championship just so happened to be last Saturday. The NCAA doesn’t want to lose the ratings and money on that right? So the Wednesday before the SEC tournament athlete B was declared eligible despite his criminal record, question academics and not to mention his father shopped him around for a ton of money. No big deal right?
The last athlete, let’s call him athlete C, is from overseas, Turkey to be exact. Athlete C played for a Turkish club, which by NCAA rules is legal and received money for room and board and some other expenses, not by an NBA agent but by the club itself. Athlete C’s parents did everything possible to keep their son eligible and thought they were going by NCAA rules by receiving the $33,000 dollars the club gave to athlete C. Athlete C came miles away from home just to go to a prep school and then college at the University of Kentucky.
Yet, athlete C does not know whether he will ever play college basketball in America because the NCAA found the $33,000 dollars he received impermissible and way too much money. I guess his father should have shopped him around, or hired an NBA agent to give him a Benz to drive.
You tell me who shouldn’t play.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, athlete A is Josh Selby. Athlete B is none other than Cam Newton. Athlete C is Enes Kanter.
Why? Because the NCAA makes no sense at all and it doesn’t take a sports expert to figure that out. Take the Kanter and Newton cases for example. The NCAA has been debating on whether or not to let Kanter play since the summer. Literally, Kentucky fans have been waiting since August to hear if their highly touted big man can play.
The Cam Newton case may have literally taken two days. The reason? The SEC championship was four days later. Despite an ongoing rule that the parent is treated as the child if anything happens, Newton was let go, free to play in the SEC championship where he was free to frolic all over the field and be placed on his team mates shoulders and sauntered around like they just won the national title while the news reporter grinned and took a drink of his “Cam juice.”
The Selby case may have taken a little longer, but even after driving a Mercedes-Benz to school after “innocently” getting an agent to be his advisor. He may have not been an athlete overseas or shopped around but he was the number one recruit in the nation and could very well go first overall in the NBA draft once he steps on the floor for Kansas sometime this month.
Enes Kanter did not drive a Mercedes-Benz to school. Nor did he get shopped around by his parents. He didn’t get paid by an agent nor was he involved in anything that threw up red flags. He has never stolen a lap top and then tossed it out the window once police came looking for it. Enes Kanter just wants to play college basketball.
So you tell me is the NCAA corrupt, or just stupid?
I’ll answer for you, both.
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