After the news, broke that the FBI charged four college assistant coaches and the head of Adidas marketing in a corruption scheme, it has become a wait and see who and what is next. The game and the system right now seems irreparable. The NCAA has one finger in the dam, but the necessary repairs seem too little, too late with the constant black cloud swirling above. The game will change after this and the outcome will be very different.
As basketball remains in a tilt position with all the players involved wondering what the final call will be. NYC Hall of Fame Player/Coach Rod Strickland has a very different assessment on why it took so long for the system to be exposed and what changes are necessary.
Strickland, who has played basketball on every level and coached in college, exclusively gave NYCHoops.net his thoughts. “The overall feeling is that it’s unfortunate, but obviously the system has to change. I think it’s more the culture than individuals. I hate that some of the assistant coaches are caught in it. [Louisville head coach] Rick Pitino just got fired, I just think it’s the system and at the end of the day it’s a business. They are going to have to let the players become part of the business. You can’t have one side which is business and the other which is the player amateurism. Everyone is benefiting off of the players’ talent at some point and time, it has to change.”
The marketing and selling of the athlete’s name and likeness has been a sore subject for years, e.g.- Ed O’Bannon v. NCAA. Strickland touched on this saying, “These kids, they have their own image, the licensing, marketing, and things like that for the colleges. The schools are getting paid off the kids. Then you have the sneaker companies, where the coaches at the universities are getting paid for them, but the kids are not getting anything. We always talk about the athletic scholarships, that’s fine and dandy, but this is a multi-billion dollar business. The kids are being sacrificed even the rules do not catered to the kids. For example, the meals rules where a kid from Connecticut [Shabazz Napier] had something to say a few years ago that the student-athletes didn’t have enough to eat. They then tried to change the rules up a little bit, but at the end of the day the players can’t work. They get Pell Grants and money like that, but all the other students have the capability of working at some point and time. The system has to change cause that kinda breeds what’s going on.”
If the colleges do not want to pay the athletes, Strickland suggests a happy median with the shoe companies involved. “The sneaker companies, I think why not let the sneaker companies negotiate with the kids. Let the kids get some of that money,” he added.
Most of Strickland's finger pointing was directed at grassroots basketball. “Grassroots basketball needs to change I think it would have to be the sneaker companies coming together,” he said. “They have a couple of circuits that’s for the best of the best. The problem now is you got the AAU coaches trying to benefit, trying to get maybe get a college job or a deal with the shoe company to fund their programs and themselves. “
Back in the late 1980’s, there were very few AAU team’s around and players not only showed up to win but also to develop and get better, the New York City Hall of Fame point guard spoke about how things were back then. “When I grew up, we didn’t have so many teams. We had mentors and coaches who tried to develop the whole team. Now you have a lot of AAU teams that don’t even practice. It’s just meet us at the tournament and lets play.so you don’t get that development. Kids are not playing together for a long period of time. So, the AAU teams are built around one or two players, letting them be the so-called stars. While the other players just have to sacrifice to fit in, it takes away from everybody.”
Strickland elaborated saying, “It takes away from development and gives kids a false sense of what they are if you instill all this confidence. Those one, two or three guys that will push them for that period of time. It gives a false sense of what they are and what they need to improve on. Kids get a distorted sense of self-worth, that’s why I think these kids that are supposed to be the top guys don’t necessarily make it with everything given to them and being told they are the best.”
The AAU system seems to be a free for all with everyone jumping in Strickland thinks the coaches need to have an educational background. “The AAU coaches need to be put through some type of educational process as far as dealing with the kids. Learn how to be mentors, instilling the right values and principles. I think we can empower kids enough to make them want to learn we don’t push them enough to get an education. All we give them is basketball and say ok we will figure out this other piece. At the end of the day a lot of these kids will not make it. We need kids to start chasing success, fame and wealth will come its part of success. Success has to be developed and done with a lot people with other people around you, you don’t do it alone. We have to get back to the essence of teaching kids manners, shake your hand look you straight in the eye and be engaged with people.”
The arrest of Emmanuel “Book” Richardson and Lamont Evans really rattled Strickland. “The NCAA investigation, from what I know, [the FBI] kinda lucked into it and stumbled upon it with the financial guy [Marty Blazer], got caught up in some type of tax something. I don’t know what for. He gave up what he knew, so I think a reform is needed. I hate the fact that guys like Emmanuel “Book” Richardson and my guy from Oklahoma State Lamont Evans are involved. Those guys, I don’t think people understand recruiting. I always hated that saying that recruiter, he can recruit! We need somebody that can recruit in this area. When you say a recruiter that means pressure on you and that you got to bring in players. We are not talking about is he a basketball coach, that’s secondary. That puts them in a position to have to do things by any means necessary.”
On the life of a college coach, recruiter, Strickland said, “Don’t think there not pressure from coaches that you got to get this done. If you go in there as a recruiter and you're slow building or slow at finding players, you got a lot of pressure. That’s your job on the line. That’s why I say the culture has to change because at end of the day, in a perfect world, he'd be a basketball coach, a mentor, a skill development and a recruiter that combination. Basketball and mentoring should be a big part of it but it’s not. If you’re a recruiter you don’t have to have all of those other attributes and you can become a coach. I think that’s a problem.”
Has the adult driven business of basketball completely hurt the student-athlete? “The FBI situation, I hate that good guys are kinda caught up in it but I think at the end of the day the reform is needed. There's a lot going on, probably too much,” said Strickland. “And the kids are getting hurt at the end of the day we don’t punish the kids it’s all adult driven. If you look at anything that has gone wrong it’s the adults. You can’t say a kid took money why did he take the money? Who offered it to him? Then the kid can’t play. The transfer rule, a coach can go to one school and then two days later he doesn’t want to go there he wants to go somewhere else. The coach can freely go there whereas the kid, he has to sit out."
Strickland said he saw coaches that have been mean spirited about it by not letting a kid out of the school. "I think that’s wrong. A kid should be able to go like any other student but because its big business and coaches have win or they lose their job.”
Currently, Coach Strickland is pursuing a job with the NBA, “I am talking to a couple of teams and I am hoping the situation happens. I would have loved to be a college head coach. I almost had the opportunity at Florida A&M. I thought I was going to get the head coaching job but it didn’t turn out that way. Once the Florida A&M situation didn’t happen that kinda closed the door. But I am always open for college and a pro position.”
