I ask this question every time a college player goes pro after one or two years – wouldn’t it be nice if players had to stay three years once “committing” to college? You don’t even have a major lined up after one or two years. It makes a mockery of the term “student-athlete.” It’s more like “becoming-a-big-wig-and-biding-your-time-until-you-can-go-to-the-NBA-athlete.”

Usually, but not always, these guys are players who are gifted as athletes and as students, not so much. Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall, both sophomores, have announced that they are turning pro. John Henson, a junior, wisely waited an extra year but he and the others could use more seasoning to become great NBA players. We’ll see if they become stars in the NBA or wind up like Ed Davis, who turned pro early and is averaging seven points a game in the NBA, or Marvin Williams, who turned pro early and is averaging 10 points a game in the NBA.

Sadly, since the NBA drafts on potential, it is more about how much money can I make right now. As UNC announcer and former player Eric Montross said, the players who leave early and succeed tend to be the players who dominate on the collegiate level. He added that this past season, Carolina didn’t have any underclassmen who dominated at the collegiate level. I suppose the argument could be made that Kendall Marshall dominated games with his point guard play but he has less than a year and a half of being a starter at the collegiate level, he averaged just eight points a game, and he never even made first team all conference. Will his game translate to being a star in the NBA or is it just that these guys dream about being in the NBA and now it’s their chance? Barnes certainly didn’t shoot very well this season. If he hadn’t come into the program with such high expectations, I doubt he’d be going pro after two years. He’s certainly going on potential.

At one time, I dreamed of working at the Washington Post but even if the Post offered me a high salary to leave Carolina after one or two years, I wouldn’t have done it. First, while I had potential, I hadn’t reached it yet. Plus, going through college and having a senior year was important to me. I wouldn’t trade the memories I have from my senior year for a million dollars. I promise, I wouldn’t. At one time a lot of boys like me dreamed of playing for Carolina – that was their dream, not playing in the NBA. If I were good enough, I would be more interested in where I could rank in the UNC record book or how many conference and national titles I could get. Of course few of us were good enough, and seemingly the ones who are good enough dream about the NBA instead.

At one time, guys were going pro because of family hardship but that’s not the case with Barnes, Marshall or even Henson (who could still stand to put on some muscle so he won’t get tossed around in the physical NBA). It’s disappointing to see guys go pro without truly being college students. The basketball rule ought to be more similar to the baseball rule. You can go pro right after high school but if you go to college you have to stay three years. Those who go to college then truly become student-athletes, anything less and it becomes “rent-a-star” for a year or two. (For those who ask, but what if they get hurt in college and their draft stock plummets? There are now insurance policies for that sort of thing so they’ll still get plenty of money. Philosophically, they could get hurt in the pros too and never amount to much as a player and would be getting money they never really earned.)

The college game and ultimately the NBA game would be better if guys had to stay three years. Barnes and Marshall, we hardly knew ye, and in a year or two we may hear about you as little as we hear about Davis and Williams. But, you’ll have a wad of money at a younger age – another potential negative that I’ll save for another discussion.