When it’s all said and done, Rich Paul will go down in history as the agent to one of the NBA’s greatest players; he might also have an NCAA rule named after him that could impact college and pro basketball in the immediate future. According to John Rothstein of CBS Sports, the NCAA has set forth criteria for agents to deal with college basketball players inquiring about going pro. Rothstein tweeted out the requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Certified with NBPA for a minimum of 3 years
- Take an in-person exam at the NCAA Office in Indianapolis
In addition to that, agents who wish to work with players that want to return to school if their NBA plans fall through, must be certified with the NCAA. Even then, the season will have to be be over with any such agreement is made.
In the wake of this tweet going out many people suspected that this rule took a shot at Paul, the agent of Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James and also someone who has became very successful without a college degree. In fact, according to Paul’s Wikipedia, he was selling throwback jerseys out of his trunk when he first met James. Eventually, Paul worked with James’ former agent, Leon Rose, until 2012 when he formed Klutch Sports and brought the superstar to his company as a client. Not bad for a guy with no Bachelor’s degree who used to sell jerseys out of a car.
This comes off as another attempt in making it difficult for players to leave after a year, by making it difficult to find agents to sign with. It’s kind of wild that the wait-one-year rule is still in play, but people have sort of accepted that and can tell which players are poised to be one-and-done.
The one glaring mistake about all of this, is that there is no field of study listed for the Bachelor’s degree. Usually a job will tell you that you need a degree in Marketing, Finance or a similar field, depending on what you’re applying for; but they’re just telling you to have any type of Bachelor’s. At least have some form of business degree It just reinforces the notion that as long as you know the business, then you should be fine; but that was probably how some of these guys were getting by with their friends and family guiding their careers. In entertainment and sports, you can swing and hit 10 industry people who do not have a college degree, but they’re there because they know the industry that they partake in. Jay-Z does not have a college degree, yet he has been a minority owner of a franchise and now runs a sports agency himself. On paper, the NCAA might think this makes them look cool by trying to imply they’re not against one-and -done players but these stipulations sort of puts them on that path. We should learn more in the future on how all of this would pan out.
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