I Guess I’m An Old Fuddy Duddy

I love college basketball. I have since the very first game I attended, a match-up in The Palestra between Penn and Villanova (technically that’s not correct – we went for that game but the first game I ever saw was the first half of the double-header between Lasalle and Connecticut)

I love the energy, the passion, the flaws of the college game. I love watching a collection of young individuals players learn how to mature into a team. I love watching the whole become greater than the sum of the parts.

I also love the amateurism.

If I wanted to watch the NBA I’d be all over it on TV. I’d make the hour drive to Denver. I don’t enjoy the professional game like I do the college game. Yes the NBA players are unbelievably talented. It’s just not for me.

And so when California passes a law that allows players to be paid in much the same way as an NBA player, I think to myself “Why would I want the game I love to become a watered down version of the NBA?”.

The G-League already serves that purpose.

Folks from my generation probably remember these lyrics from the great Joni Mitchell:

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

I’m open to change when its for the better. I just don’t see how this makes the game of college basketball better.