Former college basketball player Christian Laettner is against current college basketball players earning money by making money for their schools. Why does he care? It has something to do with team development. And it is not his only beef. But first, some background.
Laettner is famous for a game-winning shot during the 1992 NCAA basketball tournament. In the Eastern regional final, with 2 seconds left in OT, Laettner’s Duke Blue Devils #1 trailed the Kentucky Wildcats #2 by one. Laettner caught a court-length inbound pass, turned, and scored with a jump shot. The crowd went wild. And in 2004, Sports Illustrated called it the "greatest college basketball game of all time".
At the time, college athletes worked for free. Now they can make some bank.
Also in 1992, Christian Laettner was the token college player on the US ‘Dream Team,’ the first time pros played in the Olympics. He went on to have a decent NBA stint and make some money. His career was not typical for most college athletes — who rarely get to the NBA or NFL. And who make no money playing for college teams generating millions in revenue.
That changed in 2019 when California (where else) became the first state to pass a law allowing college athletes to be paid for their names, images, and likenesses (NIL). The National College Athletic Assoc. (NCAA) did not like the idea. They called it “harmful,” “unconstitutional,” and an “existential threat” to college sports.
The powers-that-be were fighting a losing battle. In June 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for schools to demand athletes work for free. By July 2021, college athletes had begun signing deals — and the issue disappeared.
Just kidding. Rich people are still horrified by the thought of poor people making money. Laettner, although he is no longer rich, declared that NIL is a nightmare that will dirty the NCAA’s skirts. And reduce that bastion of athletic purity to a cesspit of money grubbers.
When he was asked by Mike Greenberg on his eponymous radio show #greeny his feelings about the state of play in college sports, Laettner took dead aim at money going to the labor force.
“They gotta take out the NIL. They gotta wipe that out.”
Perhaps Laettner is bitter that he has not been financially successful after basketball. Perhaps he is so bitter at his flirtation with bankruptcy he is pissed at others making money. I do not know. And listeners expecting a reason for Laettner’s opinion were disappointed. He instead turned to another beef.
“They gotta change the transfer portal. I know everyone’s saying the horse is out of the barn and you can’t take stuff back, but how can you establish any type of culture at a school when you’re getting new kids every year?”
The transfer portal is a database launched in 2018, that allows any NCAA athlete to declare their interest in transferring to a different school. In addition, the NCAA got rid of the requirement for a transferring athlete to sit out a year.
Is it the American way to bind a worker to their employer for four years? Is that not indentured servitude? I suspect Laettner would have taken any cash offered to him while he played college basketball. But hypocrisy is no deterrent to some.
Laettner goes on to expand on his concern:
“That would mean every year was like my freshman year at Duke; and you’re so much better your third, your fourth year when you’re under one system, one program, one coach, one specifically defined culture… I don’t know how the coaches do it in today’s game, and that’s why some of the better ones are starting to quit.”
I call bullshit. I doubt any coach is quitting because some players might want to transfer. And Lattner does not name one. I imagine the more significant issue for a head coach is the one-and-done rule, which allows a player to declare for the NBA a year out of high school.
Laettner’s also has it backward. He should consider that the more money a college player earns, the more likely they are to stay in school. And isn’t that what he wants? I hate to play to stereotypes, but Laettner is reinforcing the ‘dumb jock’ trope.
I am a New Yorker who grew up in England, so the billion-dollar college sports industry is not part of my psyche. The last New York college FB team ending the season at #1 was Syracuse in 1959. In 2004, the Orange were also New York’s last college basketball #1. But I think it is fair that people who work many hours in a job with significant risk for injury should be paid. Especially as they are swimming in a billion-dollar pool filled by their efforts.
College athletics is big business. In 2023, the NCAA recorded $1.3 billion in revenue. The profit centers are men’s football and basketball. Head coaches are multi-millionaires. Last season, 25 college football coaches earned more than $6 million a year. Before he retired, Nick Saban of Alabama commanded a salary of $11.4M per. Basketball coaches do not reach those heights. Top-paid John Calipari (Kentucky) has to scrape by on $8.53M.
For decades, the players generating the NCAA revenue stream were not compensated for their labor. Colleges argue that athletic scholarships are ample compensation. At some private colleges, that is a reasonable position. However, at state schools, the cost for poor families can be as little as nothing. So, the student-athlete is getting nothing for their revenue-generating work.
They should — despite what Laettner has to say.