You just simply have to read Dan Wetzel’s piece on Michael Beasley, his lawsuit against his former agent, and the dark road players take to the NBA that starts when they’re young prodigies. Here’s what lies at the heart of it:
Beasley alleges he was befriended at age 13 by a local AAU basketball powerbroker, Curtis Malone, who plotted with Bell to have Bell become Beasley’s agent when he eventually made the NBA. Malone is named in a third-party complaint.
Beasley lays out a litany of payouts and favors from Malone and Bell that may violate state and federal agent laws, as well as NCAA statutes. It may turn into a serious legal case, as well as an NCAA one for Kansas State, where Beasley played for one season.
Beasley is just one of many. Young kids with NBA potential are being used as free rides to big money in pro basketball. Unscrupulous individuals target potential future stars and start their full court press. Kids coming from unfortunate circumstances, like Beasley did, are the easiest of targets.
Wetzel is more forgiving in his piece than I am when it comes to this. Yes, Beasley in particular did benefit from the guidance of the people he’s now suing. But the fact is, that guidance is what’s necessary to make this kid into a star. I don’t know if what I’m about to say is what happened in the Beasley case, but it’s something that happens too often.
When a young kid with incredible talent emerges from a single-parent household, he’s the juiciest target out there. These agents and AAU “power brokers” are the lions and these kids are the wounded impala. Without the money to travel to camps or tournaments, the young could-be-star players are told they’re missing out on their only chance to get out of where they are and someday provide for their families.
Imagine being a young teen in a struggling family. You’re told you’ve got the talent to buy your mom a house and a car someday, but only if you take advantage of THIS opportunity. BUT, there’s hope. “I’ll get you there… I’ll waive the costs… I’ll pay for the flights… because you’re too good to miss this chance.”
Wow.
“This guy must really care,” you’d think. Now the hook is set. This person is now entrenched in your life. You might see a father figure, but the reality is this is a hustler investing time, money and energy into an investment that will pay off down the line. Because he’s friends with an agent. OR he’s friends with the friend of an agent. And at some point, you’re introduced. And if your “father figure” vouches for him, then he’s got to be cool.
The other side of the argument there is that it’s one HELL of a chance to take. To spend years mentoring a kid on the chance he’ll actually make it seems to be a bit much. And not every scenario plays out that way. But it’s happening, in some form.
The bottom line is the AAU system that is currently in place is a breeding ground for illegal agent activity. It’s the pool of standing water where the mosquitoes that are unscrupulous agents can suck money from players. It’s all a gamble, of course. These kids are all teenagers and you never know which of them will actually pan out.
Back to Wetzel:
The NBA wants an age minimum, so their future stars get marketed at the college level. As such, it forces kids with limited academic interests into universities and the NCAA’s restrictive rulebook. The control-obsessed NCAA, meanwhile, is adamantly opposed to its young athletes having professional representation. The result is to force all of it underground, even if everyone involved in college athletics knows it’s going on.
What’s left are stories like this one – a teen prospect on the edge, a local father figure with the know-how to guide him through the system and the eager agent willing to fund the entire operation against future fees.
What else does anyone expect to happen?
If we’re to look for an actual solution to this problem, we should start at the top, where the money is. The big draw to the NBA is the millions of dollars it will give a kid who may not be ready for that kind of windfall. So perhaps step one is to expand the NBA Developmental league into a true minor league system. Baseball routinely drafts kids out of high school, and while some of them do get big chunks of money, almost all of them still have to work their way through an extensive minor league system to get to the pros. And while the NBA will probably never get to baseball’s multi-level minor league system, expanding the D-League to 30 teams so each team has an affiliate is a start.
From there, you can create a two-tier salary system where a player in the minor leagues makes minor-league money, and then he makes his NBA salary when he’s back with the big-club. With a system like this in place, you can eliminate the age limits and let the player risk making, say, $100,000 rather than $1 million. What this prevents is leaches pushing kids into the NBA who aren’t ready.
Secondly, the AAU system has to go. I’ve long been a proponent of a youth basketball system under the auspices of USA Basketball. I’m not sure if that’s truly the way to go, but these underground breeding grounds for sleazy go-betweens picking out the cream of the crop for agents waiting in the shadows has to end. At least with USA Basketball, you create a scenario where kids are not only playing at a high-level of organized youth basketball, they are being supervised. You get the additional benefit of creating an environment where the team concept is more prevalent. You also create a stronger bond between these kids and the national team, fostering a spirit of participation when global competitions come around.
These may or may not be the best solutions, but I think they are a start. You might not completely eliminate the dirty element of agents and runners preying on children in unfortunate situations who have a certain athletic gift. The kids need guidance, but they need the guidance with no ulterior motives. They need a system that fosters their development but lets them make their own decisions when they finally blossom. We need to work towards this system, or else we’re just going to let these soulless miscreants ride the backs of these wunderkinds to large, dirty payouts.
