2 Responses to My Hypothesis-a1175

1. harp03 says:

   February 10, 2020 at 10:39 am

   Hi a1175,

   To begin, I’d like to mention the fact that I do see your argument regarding basketball players attending college and obtaining a degree before entering the NBA, but I don’t ENTIRELY agree with it. Yes, I think there are benefits, such as teaching the importance of education and learning responsibility. It is also great for NBA players to have a backup in response to a career-altering injury

   However, not letting superstar high school talents enter the NBA for (at least) two years, barring a player taking college-level courses in high school to get their degree quicker, would be harmful to the league. The NBA is already receiving backlash by fans for making the “1-and-done” rule, where high schooler are required to attend a university for at least 1 year before entering the league. Adding years to their college career would only infuriate fans even more. In addition, those players, most of which end up playing in the NBA for years, would be missing out on years of money-making potential. NBA contracts are, in large, guaranteed money! So any argument pertaining to injury concerns would be labeled invalid in most circumstances.

   In addition, the NBA has a minimum player salary, and as of the 2019-2020 season, it is set at just over $582,000/yr. Most players who are drafted are offered an NBA contract with the team, meaning that at MINIMUM they are making over half a million dollars per year. If players were forced to attend a college and get a degree first, they’d be missing out on possibly a million dollars or more, plus money acquired from endorsements and player incentives/clauses. Teams also make lots of revenue from promoting their young, 20-year old talent.

   Overall, it would be a bad look for the entire sport and benefit nobody if high school basketball players were forced to obtain a college degree before entering the NBA. However, I am really interested to see any counterpoints you have, as many people hate the 1-and-done rule like me. It will be difficult to find evidence supporting your claim/hypothesis, but I am sure you could do it.

   Your 6 steps are written well and display an effort to develop your hypothesis from an original topic. Although your final step could contain more specific detail about what degree is required and WHY it would benefit players to get one before entering the league.

   Nice work!

   Reply
2. davidbdale says:

   March 4, 2020 at 12:50 am

   My reaction here, A1175, is that you’re making an ethical argument that would be difficult to defend in any other industry.

   Certainly a financial services firm, for example, would most likely consider for their analyst positions only candidates who had achieved a college degree in finance, but would they be able to MANDATE that no analysts could be hired without a degree? Could they, in other words, DISQUALIFY a genius analyst (who didn’t need college to work her wizardry) from working not just for one company but from working ANYWHERE in the field?

   So, my question is, what makes the NBA different as an industry? How can it prohibit every employer in the league from bending the job description qualifications?

   Even if your critics, like Harp03, agreed with you that having a college degree before entering the NBA would be A GOOD THING, that won’t convince them that it should be REQUIRED unless you can argue that it SHOULD BE required. And on what ethical basis could that argument be made? Will a 20-year-old who signed an NBA contract just out of high school, whose knee blows out in two years, who is permanently retired at age 20 with $10 million in the bank, be in any way prohibited from getting a college degree once his basketball days are over? Will the NBA have harmed him by delaying his education while making him rich?

   There’s still plenty of room in your hypothesis for ethical, practical, legal, and categorical argument, but you’ll need to be much more specific about your proposal (and more certain of the details of NBA contracts and the legalities of a sports monopoly like the NBA) to be persuasive, whatever your ultimate thesis.

   You’re just getting started on the research process, A. Be alert to the details and open to influence. Your hypothesis will likely undergo considerable evolution.

   Reply

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