Special Contributor // Jon Marshall
This week, I spent the majority of my time camping out at the NHL’s Washington Capitals’ rookie development camp. I have to put this out here, before I get the engine going, this will be the most intimate I have been with the sport of hockey in my young life save for the Mighty Ducks craze in the mid-1990s.
With that being said, amidst me freezing my behind off in the ice box that is the Ketter Iceplex in Arlington, Virginia, I came to the sudden realization and appreciation for what was going on in front of my eyes. Here were young guys some born as recent as 1993 getting elite level training and coaching without pressures of shouldering a franchise. I then connected this to other professional leagues and how they fare in grooming young guys and the two that fail in this are the two that currently are out of business; the NFL and NBA.
Given the nature and infrastructure of these two leagues, the pressure to perform from day one is stifling. Imagine when this pressure is placed on the scrawny shoulders of barley twenty something individuals (see Ryan Leaf and Kwame Brown). I mean think about it, when you were twenty or if you are now, would you be ready to handle a multi-million dollar contract, groupies and taking care of family?
Sure, we all like to think athletes lives are picture perfect. Like Biggie said, with more money comes more problems. The beauty of the NHL system along with Major League Baseball’s is players are groomed and don’t come out until they are ready. So much in pro sports, the NBA especially, general managers are enamored with a guys upside and potential. This only dilutes the product.
Bryce Harper some of you may know is baseball hottest young prospect at the moment. Playing under the Washington Nationals organization, he just recently got bumped up to Double-A Harrisburg. This is a kid who skipped his final two years of high school to play junior college ball. To keep it simple, the kid has prodigious talent. People are already crowning him as the next one to change the game of baseball. The hype is all good and well, he still must show and prove. He’s grinding it out with players who may never make it to the major league level. No five star hotels, no fine cuisine and no yes men. This must be a humbling experience.
Not so for pro football and basketball guys. They are given the keys to the Mercedes while on their permits majority of the time. What if the NBA and NFL actually develop legit minor league systems? The now defunct NFL Europe was known as football’s next top-tier league yet was still utilized only as a landing spot for vets looking to make it to the show.
NFL rosters field 53 players with eight additional on the practice squad. Why not allow teams to carry a few more potential prospects with hopes of sending them to the United Football League or Canadian Football League to further groom and develop? This by far beats the experience they would get holding a clip board. Game experience against pro talent is invaluable.
The NBA is trying to mimic a minor league system with the NBDL. Most teams are now affiliated with a D-League team where they can send unproven rookies or undrafted free agents to for more playing time. This has worked to an extent with a few success stories. Still, something seems to be missing. There is a feeling that GM’s really don’t follow through on their players once they go down, which is not a true minor league system. One positive out of it though is players are able to showcase their skills and get signed by any NBA team just so happening to be in the gym scouting.
Of course what would make the NBDL even better was if the NBA did away with the age limit prohibiting high schoolers to enter the league. If a player goes undrafted simply make it mandatory that he plays in the D-League.
But that’s neither here or there. The NFL and NBA have bigger fish to fry. They don’t have livelihoods hanging in the balance. Nope, millionaires are looking for more millions regardless of those young guys who get lost in the shuffle.
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