Thank God I never bet anything more than my pride on sporting events. And it’s a damn good thing I have so much of it.
(“2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 10, 2013)
True to form, not a single one of my picks made it to the sweet sixteen, let alone to last night’s championship. Therefore, as thrilling as the final rounds of this year’s tournament were, I could not have been less interested in the outcome of a single game.
All the same, I heartily congratulate the UConn Huskies on winning their fourth national championship in 15 years by defeating the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54.
This year’s championship is especially commendable given the travails that dogged the Huskies following their most recent championship in 2011. Most notably, their head coach, Jim Calhoun, seized the opportunity to retire on top. Except that he left behind players he trained to focus on athletics instead of studies so much that they were banned from tournament play last year for failing to meet the minimum academic scores for participation. The team was in ashes.
Then along came a 41-year-old Black guy named Kevin Ollie who nobody thought could do what Calhoun did. Yet he coached the team to rise like a phoenix back into championship form in just two years – complete with passing grades (even if acquired by notoriously suspect means).
What I found most interesting, however, was that team leader Shabazz Napier invited all kinds of distracting media attention when he chose the eve of their improbable return to last night’s championship game to make this startling complaint:
Shabazz Napier, point guard for The University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team, recently told reporters he understands why athletes at Northwestern need a union, as he sometimes has to go to bed ‘starving’ because he cannot afford food.
Napier, who heads into the NCAA Championship match-up against the University of Kentucky tonight, told reporters that it’s hard for him to see his jersey getting sold while he struggles to eat.
(The Connecticut Mirror, April 7, 2014)
His complaint did not surprise me in the least. What’s more, I think it constituted a brave act of civil disobedience that should help compel payment to these kids who schools like UConn systematically treat more as indentured servants than student-athletes:
There’s nothing amateur about college [Basketball]. It’s a billion-dollar business for Christ’s sake! More to the point, the people generating its revenue are not the university presidents, athletics directors, or coaches who, incidentally, make millions of dollars in salary and endorsement deals. Instead, they are the poor Black athletes whose raw talents colleges exploit…
I have always felt that it’s tantamount to modern-day slavery for universities to recruit poor and, all too often, uneducated black athletes just to play [Basketball] and not compensate them for their services, especially considering they rarely get an education. But this indentured servitude is made much worse by branding these poor players as cheaters for accepting a little cash on the side. Mind you, those offering the cash are often boosters just trying to make life easier for the players to enable them to perform better … out on the [court]…
The hypocrisy inherent in this is beyond shameful.
Colleges should compensate student-athletes in direct proportion to the way [NBA] teams compensate their players. They could then reallocate the scholarship money they spend recruiting jocks to fund financial aid for black students who aspire to be more than professional athletes.
(“Reggie Bush Forfeits Heisman Trophy,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 16, 2010)
Is it any wonder the five freshmen who started for the Wildcats last night have all declared their intent to seek fairer pay in the NBA for the services they provide and the revenues they generate? Ironically, they can thank their fair-minded coach for tacitly endorsing their one-and-done rite of passage despite criticism from his feudal-minded peers:
It’s just too bad the post-game talk was more about the way Coach John Calipari recruited the players on this national championship team than about the way they played. But I see nothing wrong with Calipari recruiting standout players who he knows are committed to no more than one year in college before heading to the NBA – the so-called ‘one-and-done‘ trend. In fact, reports are that none of the starters on this team will be returning to Kentucky next year.
(“Kentucky Wildcats Win 2012 NCAA Men’s Championship,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 3, 2012)
That said, I would be remiss not to comment on the way acclaimed investor Warren Buffet had even savvy gamblers on Wall Street salivating at the prospect of winning his $1 billion giveaway to anyone who filled out a perfect March Madness bracket; notwithstanding that one stood a better chance of winning the lotto jackpot 10 times in a row.
Of course everyone can see now what should have been obvious; namely, that this was nothing more than a cheap PR/advertising stunt for Buffet to boost his stake in Quicken Loans, the company sponsoring (and insuring) his giveaway. And Quicken Loans made out like a bandit – having the ability now to market its products to the 15 million suckers who signed up for this pipe dream.
Meanwhile, there was not a single perfect bracket left just halfway into the tournament; reinforcing the axiom about the rich getting richer….
In any event, please make an effort to watch the UConn women’s team try to emulate their male counterparts tonight by defeating Notre Dame. Especially since this will be the first time in NCAA history that two unbeaten teams meet for the national championship. It would also give UConn a repeat double feat, having won both the men’s and women’s championship in 2004.
I’m willing to bet that, if you were to find ten sports fans who dutifully filled out the men’s brackets, at least nine of them would concede that they did not do the same for the women’s.
Not to mention that, instead of commanding network coverage in prime time, like the men’s championship, the women’s was relegated last night to cable, which guaranteed only a fraction of the viewership. Yet the TV executives who are responsible for dissing women’s college basketball in this fashion are the very ones who wonder why they can’t get better ratings for the fledgling women’s professional league – the WNBA.
More important, though, what does all of this say to female college athletes, or to young girls who we encourage to have the same interest in sports as young boys…? It says that male chauvinism, sexism, and discrimination against women in sports not only still exist but are blithely tolerated….
(“UConn Routs Louisville,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 8, 2009)
True to form, even though anyone with a TV set could watch the men’s championship game on “Big three” network CBS last night, only those with a cable subscription will be able to watch the women’s on ESPN tonight.
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Pay college athletes…
Kentucky wins…
UConn routs Louisville