Maybe he should have spent more time here learning what a team is. He didn’t show a team mentality at LSU for damn sure.
Howard Cosell and Don Maynard were broadcasting an MNF game some years ago and they always introduced opposing players who would come on, state their names and give their college. Dandy Don was wondering what one of the players (who had been in prison but never went to college) was going to say. When the player came on he looked at the camera, stated his name and said, "Maryland State" --then cracked a huge smile showing a face full of gold teeth. It was an epically funny moment.
Get rid of the rule. Let them go straight to the pros if they want. It's not the organization's job to make sure these kids make decisions that are best for them. That's up to the young men. They don't need to be hand held. None of the other 97% of people in this world who don't play professional sports are required to sit out a year or go to college before they can work professionally. But your educational decisions do limit the number of options available to you and how hard you are going to have to work to get to your goals. If the person has the qualifications you are looking for in order to fill the position of need, hire them. If the NBA, MLB, NFL etc were truly serious about encouraging education of these athletes then they would make a degree a necessary element for employment consideration. As for Ben Simmons, he did more harm than good and should never have played at LSU. In time his only reputation at LSU will be that guy who was here for one year and did nothing but leave a couple of disgruntled footprints. Other than this brief moment, I have given him no thoughts whatsoever since he left. He was an insignificant moment of time in the history of LSU athletics. As a final thought, I think college athletics should be filled with as many players who truly want to be part of the college atmosphere as possible. Just makes for a better overall game and experience. I'd rather watch guys playing with pure passion and love for what they are doing and who they represent. For the spoiled, "what are you gonna do for me" crowd, there's professional sports. There are markets for both types of athlete.
And for most sports I agree. The NFL however is filled with grown ass men. A kid fresh out of high school would literally be killed.
I don't blame Ben for his feelings, however, it's not on LSU. The whole one year of college is BS, they should be able to come out straight to the NBA or three years after grad like in football. It hurts schools more than anything. The problem is so many kids get drafted, but they need several years to mature and would be better off going to college for two to three years. The NBA became watered down because so many teams reached on players that either never developed or took quite a few seasons.
