Tick. Tock.
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic measurement of how close humanity is from complete destruction. It is measured in minutes as they approach a proverbial midnight, a nice wording for the end of human life.
This summer, LaMelo Ball and R.J. Hampton, ranked number 21 and 5 respectively on ESPN’s Top 100 high school basketball prospects, decided to spurn collegiate basketball and take their talents to the National Basketball League (NBL) in New Zealand.
Tick. Tock.
For Ball, this decision was made out of necessity. He most likely lost his eligibility to play in the NCAA after both taking on a shoe endorsement with Big Baller Brand, a basketball apparel company owned by his braggadocious father Lavar, and playing professionally in Lithuania during high school.
Hampton, however, did not have these barriers to playing college basketball. He was heralded as the second best point guard in this year’s high school freshmen class. He had offers from Duke University, Kansas University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Memphis, all schools that entered this season ranked within the top 15 in the nation.
The college basketball world was Hampton’s oyster and he chose to toss it back into the sea. He could have been a national star, leading one of the premiere blue bloods to another chance at glory in March. His face could have been on ESPN, CBS and NBC every time his team stepped on the court.
He chose New Zealand.
Tick. Tock.
Potentially, this could be the beginning of the end of college basketball as we know it. For almost the entirety of the past century, the NCAA has held a monopoly on the top talent in the U.S. If teenage athletes wanted to go pro, they would have to go to college. It was the only league that would get scouted and give players the necessary exposure needed to make the jump to the pros.
Hampton knew all of this and chose to go to New Zealand because he felt it was the most efficient way to prepare for the National Basketball Association (NBA). He would be able to prove himself, not against his peers, but against professionals at a level that wasn’t available to him in the U.S. On top of all that, he could get paid to play basketball. Crazy idea, right?
Tick. Tock.
The NCAA hears it, a faint ticking just out of earshot. It is approaching, faster every day, an all-out college basketball apocalypse. Why would a teenager want to play in college, where they have to take a full course schedule on top of being a full-time athlete for no money when they can go somewhere else, get paid and be better prepared for the NBA?
Couple that with the NBA actively pursuing the termination of the “one-and-done” rule, requiring players to be at least a year out of high school before being draft eligible, shows that the NCAA is on its dying breaths.
In the near future, there is a good chance high level high school prospects won’t be flocking to Power Five schools, they’ll be traveling overseas. The minute hand keeps ticking closer and closer to midnight.
Tick. Tock.
The duo of Ball and Hampton have shown other potential phenoms that the NCAA isn’t the only route. They’ve blazed a trail that others will hopefully trek down.
There are plenty of paths that make just as much sense from a basketball standpoint as the NCAA, while also delivering fair pay and the ability to make money off their likenesses to talented athletes. This era where college basketball is a collection of the best young talent in U.S. might be coming to an end.
What will college basketball look like when the ash settles? Who will the NCAA turn to when their golden geese fly away and can get fair compensation for their abilities? Will it be the end of collegiate basketball as we know it? A complete destruction of the aura surrounding one of collegiate sport’s most nationally recognized institutions?
Hey, in the immortal words of the rock band R.E.M.: “It is the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”
