Ebs’ Hot Takes: Jim Boeheim, NBA Drama, World Series

October 25, 2018 DJ Eberle DJ Eberle, Featured 0

FROM THE PRESS BOX – The World Series is in full swing, there’s so much drama in the NBA and the college basketball regular season is just a couple of weeks away.

Things are pretty, pretty good right now.

.

Time to jump right in. Here’s this week’s set of Ebs’ Hot Takes.

Enjoy.

Jim Boeheim was right. So, Syracuse head men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim made some noise at the ACC’s media day on Wednesday.

First there was his comment that about Darius Bazley signing with New Balance.

“I thought LeBron (James) did a nice job helping his client, Boeheim said, via syracuse.com. “It’s LeBron’s client, you know. It was nice of him.”

Boeheim said it was a smile on his face and a chuckle. It was a joke that probably shouldn’t have been said and was taken out of proportion.

But that’s not what I want to focus on.

It’s all of the headlines that read how Boeheim doesn’t believe college players should “ever” be paid.

Yes, he said that, but also said how athletes should be able to use their likeness and do commercials for money. And highlighted the improvements to the lifestyles of student athletes.

Here’s the entire quote, via syracuse.com. And yes, it’s a long one, but needed:

“I don’t think we should ever compensate players. I think we can do as much as we can for players. The cost of attendance is good. They get more meals now so they can keep their meal money. I think those are all good things and I think more of those things should have been done. But I don’t think you can compensate players straight out. What’s the salary? How much? Do you pay football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball? We got a great lacrosse team, do we pay those guys?

“The fallacy of the payment thing and they all say the same exact thing: ‘It’s a billion dollar business.’ No, it’s not. There might be income coming in, but it goes to all the other sports. It’s not just coming into basketball and we’re keeping it all. We’re bringing it in and it’s paying for all the other sports. So at the end of the day, I know for a fact at Syracuse that it’s zero. We have zero money left in the athletic department at the end of the year. Without paying anybody.

“And everybody says, ‘The coach makes this and the players (don’t make anything).’ The player is 17 years old. I’ve been working my whole life. There’s a lot of 17-year-old kids that don’t make money. Most of them. These 17-year-old kids are getting a $75,000 scholarship. And they compare that to a coach making all this money. What’s the comparison there? I’m a grown man. I’ve been working for 50 years. That’s just not a comparison. It makes no sense. You might as well say that NBA players aren’t making enough money because the owner’s worth $2 billion. So the players should be making more money. It just makes no sense.

“I think we should do as much as we can for the players under the system. We have improved it. We could get the parents to games. I think we could do that more easily. Anything we can do extending the players’ educations, make sure it’s paid for. We keep our players up there at Christmas — let’s send them home. Let’s pay for them to go home a couple times. Why not? Why can’t we do that? Why shouldn’t we do that? I think they do that for other scholarship people. I think they can get transportation. Why don’t we talk about that?

“And the players’ images, fine. There’s a lot of pitfalls for that, but go ahead. If Tyus Battle can do a commercial in town and make money, I’m 100 percent for that. It’s not hurting anything. Let’s do that. And if there’s something about that they want to put in a trust, that’s fine, too.”

As a former college athlete, while I understand I played Division III athletics, I agree with Boeheim. If college athletes are going to be paid, it shouldn’t be coming from the NCAA. Like Boeheim said, if Battle can do a commercial in Syracuse, then go for it. Those are the types of ways athletes should be paid.

But what do I know? I’m just a former D3 athlete. Oh wait, I do know that I’d love to have my tuition paid for because I received an athletic scholarship and not still paying student five-plus years.

It would change my life.

There’s too much drama in the NBA. Remember that scene from The Office when Andy and Erin have just started dating and haven’t told anyone yet because they don’t want the drama?

I feel the same with the NBA. We’re like three weeks into the NBA season and have already seen Rajon Rondo spit at Chris Paul and a fight ensue, Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond go into a social media battle and Trae Young stare down Wesley Matthews after Matthews dished some trash talk Wednesday night.

But why? What’s the point?

No, really. What’s the point? At the end of the day, aren’t most of these guys friends anyway? Just look at LeBron. He’s playing with two old enemies in Rondo and Lance Stephenson now.

I just don’t need the drama. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy college basketball so much more.

The Boston Red Sox are going to win the World Series in five. The Boston Red Sox would sweep the Los Angeles Dodgers if it wasn’t for Clayton Kershaw. Something tells me that Kershaw is going to bounce back in a big way when he likely takes the mind in Game 4.

It could be his last game in a Dodgers uniform after all.

On paper, the Dodgers should have made this a really good World Series. Their offense is impeccable and led by Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Kenley Jansen, their pitching staff is pretty darn good, too.

But it just doesn’t matter. The Boston offense is too good and guys like David Price and Joe Kelly are pitching out of their minds.

There’s a reason the Red Sox won 108 games and are on their way to a World Series title.

Just maybe Kershaw and slow them down.

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About DJ Eberle 223 Articles
DJ Eberle: The youngest of our team, DJ is also the largest. Offensive Tackle Large. In fact, this Albany native used OT for Western New England University - until he graduated in May of 2014. Like Junoir Blaber, he's a regular on Rugby Wrap Up - his dad played rugby with The Matts. His cross to bear, however, is his love for the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. As for baseball and basketball, it's the Yanks and Atlanta Hawks. Follow him on Twitter: @ByDJEberle.