Schools should provide educational majors in professional athletics – Outstanding piece
The difference between Brandon Rush and his draft-scarred Kansas teammates, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur, is a fortunate knee injury.
Rush desperately wanted to make the same mistake Chalmers and Arthur made, leaving for the NBA draft a year too early and 12 months before he was ready to make the difficult decisions it takes to transition smoothly into a pro career.
Luckily for Rush, he blew out his knee last summer before suffering the same humbling draft fate as Arthur and Chalmers, who fell to late in the first round and early in the second round, respectively.
What happened to Chalmers, Arthur and even Kansas State’s Bill Walker (a late second-round pick) serves as yet another example that college basketball and football players could use more career-educational assistance from the universities they attended.
Yes, they are young men and they’re responsible for the poor decisions they make. But NCAA schools could do more to help them.
OK, this will not be a repeat of the rant I made a couple of months ago about the need for high school academies for talented football and basketball players. I still very much believe in that concept.
But today’s rant will focus on a simpler tool that could benefit athletes. Universities should offer educational majors in professional athletics. Had Chalmers and Arthur been enrolled in KU’s hypothetical school of professional athletics with an emphasis in basketball, I believe they not only would’ve made more intelligent decisions but also been more enthusiastic about staying in school.
kansascity.com
6/28/08
