And here is the big one: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes...e.amp.html

Bazley signs a deal with $1M guaranteed and up to $14M with incentives. If the other shoe companies get in on this then no top 10-15 guard/wing should ever go to college unless they really want to.

I was typing this on the G League $125K thread when you posted.

Bazley is a SF from Cincinnati, class of '18. #18 on Rivals and #23 on 247. Committed to Syracuse. A few days after the McDonald's AA game in March, he de -commits and says he will play in G League this season.

Now looks like he will just pocket the shoe money, train all year for the draft next June, and not play G League at all.

Main point is the player gets the money, not the dad or uncle Rico. In the FBI trial lots of testimony on the Adidas guys paying the adults. Bruce Bowen Sr. got a bag with $19K one day in New Jersey, and was texting the Adidas guys asking how to hire a prostitute that night.

Alittle risky not playing organized basketball for a year. I guess New Balance is trying to get into basketball shoe game.

(10-22-2018 11:44 AM)Tigx Wrote:  I was typing this on the G League $125K thread when you posted.

Bazley is a SF from Cincinnati, class of '18. #18 on Rivals and #23 on 247. Committed to Syracuse. A few days after the McDonald's AA game in March, he de -commits and says he will play in G League this season.

Now looks like he will just pocket the shoe money, train all year for the draft next June, and not play G League at all.

Main point is the player gets the money, not the dad or uncle Rico. In the FBI trial lots of testimony on the Adidas guys paying the adults. Bruce Bowen Sr. got a bag with $19K one day in New Jersey, and was texting the Adidas guys asking how to hire a prostitute that night.

Yeah, trial has been insane and honestly the lack of uproar should be a signal to the shoe companies that they are fine to go direct to the kids. I'll be curious to see if this catches on. If you can really place a $1M deposit on a couple top 10-15ish wings each year and lock them in for 4-5 years with incentives then I can't imagine Nike/Adidas/UA not getting in on this.

(10-22-2018 11:59 AM)Crazier Wrote:  Alittle risky not playing organized basketball for a year. I guess New Balance is trying to get into basketball shoe game.

It is. But Mitchell Robinson, Anfernee Simons and D'Anthony Melton all did it last year. Simons was a 1st rounder, and Robinson and Melton went in the 2nd. Some HS guys seeing it doesn't seem to hurt their draft prospect much. They train with the same guys NBA players do, and go to the combine in May.

Puma and New Balance getting into the sponsorship game in addition to Nike, Adidas and Under Armour.

(10-22-2018 12:00 PM)tkgrrett Wrote:  

(10-22-2018 11:44 AM)Tigx Wrote:  I was typing this on the G League $125K thread when you posted.

Bazley is a SF from Cincinnati, class of '18. #18 on Rivals and #23 on 247. Committed to Syracuse. A few days after the McDonald's AA game in March, he de -commits and says he will play in G League this season.

Now looks like he will just pocket the shoe money, train all year for the draft next June, and not play G League at all.

Main point is the player gets the money, not the dad or uncle Rico. In the FBI trial lots of testimony on the Adidas guys paying the adults. Bruce Bowen Sr. got a bag with $19K one day in New Jersey, and was texting the Adidas guys asking how to hire a prostitute that night.

Yeah, trial has been insane and honestly the lack of uproar should be a signal to the shoe companies that they are fine to go direct to the kids. I'll be curious to see if this catches on. If you can really place a $1M deposit on a couple top 10-15ish wings each year and lock them in for 4-5 years with incentives then I can't imagine Nike/Adidas/UA not getting in on this.

Good points. Dan Wetzel and Jeff Goodman talked about just that point on Goodman's podcast. 20 years ago while Cal is at UMass Marcus Camby takes $2,000, and everybody went nuts. Dozens of allegations of much higher dollar amounts under sworn testimony in this trial, and no one is surprised.

Here's just some of Bowen Sr.'s sworn testimony from one of Wetzel's columns: https://sports.yahoo.com/brian-bowen-sr-...50219.html

"Bowen Sr. testified that Dawkins told him the University of Arizona would pay $50,000 for Tugs to play for the Wildcats with the money coming via then-assistant coach Joe Pasternack, who is now the head coach of UC Santa Barbara.

Bowen Sr. testified that Dawkins told him Oklahoma State would pay $150,000, plus $8,000 for a car and “an undisclosed amount to buy a house,” for Tugs to play with the Cowboys with the money coming via then-assistant coach Lamont Evans, who was one of the coaches indicted last year in this case.

Bowen Sr. testified that Dawkins told him Texas would “help me with housing” if Tugs played for the Longhorns, with the name mentioned being then-assistant coach Mike Morrell, who is now the head coach of UNC Asheville.

Bowen Sr. testified that Dawkins told him Creighton would pay “like” $100,000 and get him “a good job, like a lucrative job” if Tugs played for the Bluejays, with the money and assistance coming via assistant coach Preston Murphy.

Bowen Sr. testified that Dawkins initially told him that Adidas would pay him between $60,000-$80,000 to play for the University of Louisville, but that offer was increased to $100,000 because a player of similar caliber, Billy Preston, was given that amount to attend Kansas.

Tugs Bowen eventually signed with Louisville, although that was in part because Brian Bowen Sr. said he believed Rick Pitino would be an excellent coach for his son, the Cardinals played in a “good league [the ACC]” and there was a spot in the starting lineup when Donovan Mitchell turned pro.

“My main concern was what the best basketball situation for my son,” Bowen Sr., testified.

Well, perhaps, but that wasn’t all of it.

“Plus, money involved,” Bowen Sr. said.

Of course.

Interesting thing in that article, He’s currently living with Mike Miller and training with him for the draft.

Tennis, golf, auto and motorcycle racing, bicycle racing, skiing, snow boarding, extreme sports. All sports where kids not only skip college to turn pro but sometimes even high school. No one seems to have issues with that happening on a regular basis. Not sure why we are all so paternal when it comes to basketball.

(10-23-2018 10:10 AM)dcg141 Wrote:  Tennis, golf, auto and motorcycle racing, bicycle racing, skiing, snow boarding, extreme sports. All sports where kids not only skip college to turn pro but sometimes even high school. No one seems to have issues with that happening on a regular basis. Not sure why we are all so paternal when it comes to basketball.

cause those are mostly white people.

(10-22-2018 11:33 AM)tkgrrett Wrote:  And here is the big one: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes...e.amp.html

Bazley signs a deal with $1M guaranteed and up to $14M with incentives. If the other shoe companies get in on this then no top 10-15 guard/wing should ever go to college unless they really want to.

I don't think this is a risk that other established shoe companies would take. New Balance is trying to get into the pro basketball game in my opinion. Not sure who they have representing their shoes in the NBA right now if anybody but if they do it's a very, very small number. I think this is a good marketing ploy buy New Balance. Hell, look at the attention this decision alone has drawn 2 New Balance. So good move by them because of their lack of position in the NBA.

(10-23-2018 10:10 AM)dcg141 Wrote:  Tennis, golf, auto and motorcycle racing, bicycle racing, skiing, snow boarding, extreme sports. All sports where kids not only skip college to turn pro but sometimes even high school. No one seems to have issues with that happening on a regular basis. Not sure why we are all so paternal when it comes to basketball.

At one time high school players could go straight into the NBA. What the NBA decided it wasn't in their business interest to allow that to continue. Hence the change.

(10-23-2018 10:36 AM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  

(10-23-2018 10:10 AM)dcg141 Wrote:  Tennis, golf, auto and motorcycle racing, bicycle racing, skiing, snow boarding, extreme sports. All sports where kids not only skip college to turn pro but sometimes even high school. No one seems to have issues with that happening on a regular basis. Not sure why we are all so paternal when it comes to basketball.

At one time high school players could go straight into the NBA. What the NBA decided it wasn't in their business interest to allow that to continue. Hence the change.

Why was it not in their best interest? Was it because of all the pressure to let Calipari actually sign some of the players who committed to his programs. It made him king of the 1 and done and (along with RC Johnson's bone headedness) got him the job at KY. Of course not, but there was pressure none the same.

(10-23-2018 11:23 AM)Keeper Wrote:  

(10-23-2018 10:36 AM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  

(10-23-2018 10:10 AM)dcg141 Wrote:  Tennis, golf, auto and motorcycle racing, bicycle racing, skiing, snow boarding, extreme sports. All sports where kids not only skip college to turn pro but sometimes even high school. No one seems to have issues with that happening on a regular basis. Not sure why we are all so paternal when it comes to basketball.

At one time high school players could go straight into the NBA. What the NBA decided it wasn't in their business interest to allow that to continue. Hence the change.

Why was it not in their best interest? Was it because of all the pressure to let Calipari actually sign some of the players who committed to his programs. It made him king of the 1 and done and (along with RC Johnson's bone headedness) got him the job at KY. Of course not, but there was pressure none the same.

The NBA argued that the league was such that while the young players had the ability and skill set to be NBA players right out of high school, they needed to "mature" in order to function properly among the men and money they would have. Those other sports are by and large non-team sports. The NBA players complained that the high school players were not mature enough to deal with the money and the road. So they needed some "seasoning" at the college level.

But the paternalism is real. Media types by and large dismissed young players trying to turn pro in basketball, while they lauded players like Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters for doing the same thing in their respective sports. The outcry nd calls for "maturity" aren't as much as they used to be, especially considering how much money the NCAA and college coaches make, off of the skills and talents of players who don't get compensated enough. But there was always this assumption that high school basketball players needed to "mature", while high school tennis, golf, or even gymnasts or track stars needed to go ahead and make money while they could.

Race, no doubt, played a significant role in these sentiments as well. Most of the young basketball players trying to turn pro were black boys, while most golf and tennis stars were white.

I don't even like Lebron much, but his response to Boeheim was pretty good. Boeheim's program busted for all kinds of violations - academic, violating drug testing rules, or course recruiting violations - for over a decade. And Boeheim gets suspended 9 games.