Should the NCAA Have a Rule For Basketball Players Staying In School?

Mark Cuban announced earlier this week that he believes players in college should have to play for three years before entering the NBA Draft. This has been a huge debate the last few weeks with Kentucky winning the National Championship with a team of one-and-done players, meaning they are mostly freshman who are all going pro after the season. From what I've heard on ESPN from analysts, opinions are split about down the middle.

Personally for me, I don't have a problem with these kids going pro. I don't have a problem with them going to the NBA out of high school if they're good enough. We have to look at this rationally. Guys like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James came right out of high school when it was allowed by the NBA and they are the two best basketball players in the league. If these guys went to college, they are going to major in basketball. People get caught up that these guys are just playing a game, but it's more than that. It's a multi-million dollar industry. This is a career for these guys. Anthony Davis went to Kentucky knowing that he was going to be an NBA player. Some people go to school to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants. That's perfectly fine because that's what they want to do. This kid wants to play basketball for a living in a professional organization. Why should we frown upon this if he gets a job offer before he graduates college? Isn't that what we go to college for? To get the job that we want?

I challenge any of the people against these kids leaving early to put themselves in these players shoes. If you're offered a $30 million dollar contract to go play basketball (which is what you want to do for a living), you're going to take it regardless of how many years of schooling you have. I have friends in Michigan that are police officers who dropped out of college to take their respective jobs. They wanted to be cops and left school early because they were offered jobs. Should we frown upon these guys for choosing to take the job they wanted all along?

I have no problem with these kids leaving early. People leave school all the time to take jobs and nobody harasses them. With all that being said, I'll be the first to admit that it's bad for college basketball as a fan, but that's not their problem. Their goal is to get a job in the NBA and when that opportunity comes knocking, they need to take it. Anyone who says they shouldn't is looking at this from the wrong perspective. We need to realize that these guys are making career choices and this is bigger than a game or a sport for them. It's a way of life.