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68 7 Decisions Whenever I hear criticism of kids leaving high school and going straight to the NBA, it’s almost always from white people, and they’re mad because they see a lot of black kids without degrees making a lot of money. The first thing that pops out of people’s mouths: “Don’t you think they’re overpaid ?” They say it like a question, but it’s a statement. But we’ve all been taught the same thing in this society, and we were taught it by the ruling gentry: a fair salary is what the market will bear. So don’t get mad at the players. Get mad at the owners. These kids are teenagers, and they’re coming out of situations where there are generations of people who have never had much money. Now they’ve got a chance to change everything, and they’re supposed to pass that up . . . exactly why? These kids, one fall, one bent knee, and their careers are shot, and no one is going to take care of all the people they wanted to care for. If an owner falls down and hurts his knee, you think they take away his team? Or send him back to the projects? These kids are being American: they’re getting what they can get while they can get it. Sure, some kids should leave school, and some should not. It’s common sense. But for a lot of these kids with real skills, it’s a once-in-alifetime opportunity. You’ve got a kid about to make five million, who can make more with one contract than most of us make in a career, and you’re saying he should pass it up? When the whole idea of college is to find a better way to make a living? Are you kidding? Of course that kid should leave school! Go ahead and leave! Why do we send our kids to school? To graduate and do what? Make money at an honest career! We only send them because we’ve learned folks with college degrees make more than those without a diploma, Decisions | 69 and those with high school diplomas make more than dropouts. Tell me, how many Ph.D.’s make ten million dollars? Some. Maybe. Few and far between. Now here’s some kid from the South Side of Chicago, raised by his mother, who can step out of school and change his family’s life. What does he do? Take a look at the first thing all these kids do. The first thing they do, once they sign, is to buy their mother a new home. I stayed four years in college, sure, but nobody was offering me ten million dollars. The question isn’t whether players who can do it should take the contracts and leave early. Of course they should. The question is what the other kids—the ones without that chance—should emulate. I was talking to a group of kids one day, and a kid who stands maybe five-foot-one tells me he’s going to be an NBA player when he gets older. If that’s what he wants to dream, fine. All kids dream. The question is if he can handle the disappointment part of it as he gets older, and he learns it isn’t going to happen. The difference, maybe, is that when the dream dies for the white kid, he looks around and sees a lot of guys in his life who are very happy, very successful, working at everyday jobs. And the kid I was talking with, he sees the guys in the NBA on his television, and then he looks around his neighborhood, and who does he emulate? Who are the guys he sees? Who are the guys with money? That’s a problem. There’s a problem to address. He needs more than the NBA dream. He needs a bigger dream to help him graduate. And that dream has to come from people around him. What’s going to be is going to be, with any class in college. People say to me that a lot of these kids who leave early aren’t ready for the money. I say, pick any college and eliminate the athletes. Track any class from freshman day through year four. You’re always going to lose kids who aren’t ready, athletes or not. For some kids, college isn’t right...

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