Barnes' Bark: Everyone Is Using Someone

Barry Barnes, Chief Baltimore Correspondent

[Following is the first installment of Barnes Bark, the an op-ed series written by Barry Barnes, a Baltimore-based writer for both i95Ballerz.com and the Washington Informer, a long time weekly newspaper.

Of course Barnes' positions are his and his alone, and may or may not represent those of i95Ballerz.com.]

September 16, 2008 - O.J. Mayo, a former USC basketball player who announced in April that he was entering the NBA draft, is one of the latest collegiate athlete who accepted cash and gifts illegally, but he will not be the last.

Mayo, is allegedly in violation of NCAA rules by accepting about $30,000 in cash and gifts while he was in high school and college, from a Los Angeles- based events promoter. Rodney Guillory, that individual, was acting as a runner, a middle-man, for BDA sports management. A runner is a person who, through an agency, initiates and maintains a relationship with an individual in hopes of securing the services with that person in the future, presumably as a professional athlete. According to reports, Guillory received monthly payments from BDA totaling about $200,000 of which only a portion went to Mayo. Mayo is now being represented by BDA.

How and why are young athletes are targeted by agencies and how can it stop?

This situation with agencies targeting young athletes will not go away simply because of poverty. Large numbers of the nation’s citizens live at or below the poverty level. A large portion of the population who lives in poverty are people of color, which means each month is a struggle to pay the bills and provide food, clothes and shelter- not to mention health care. With this said, when a runner approaches a young athlete with money, the likelihood that most will take it will probably not change.

In the inner cities of America, basketball is the most actively played sport. Basketball courts are everywhere. Out of all recreational sports, basketball is the cheapest sport to register a child for. Just sign them up, pay for their team shirt and the parent or guardian will buy the matching color shorts.

A child can start playing basketball at the age of 5. If a child shows potential through recreational basketball, a coach can tell an AAU coach about the child as early as the age of 8. An AAU coach can help develop a young athlete and as they get older, the coach, with connections, can tell a friend to tell a friend to tell another friend about a player and here comes a runner.

Through this whole process, an AAU coach and a runner will look after the player’s interests. Making sure they have a curfew, eat right and put them in the right places for more exposures. In some cases, education does not matter. For instance in Mayo’s case, USC head coach Tim Floyd did not recruit him. Coach Floyd received a phone call from someone in Mayo’s camp stating Mayo wants to play for his program.

Sports management agencies, runners and some AAU coaches are looking to cash in on young athlete. With a large number of talented young basketball players coming from a impoverished background, many can not be blamed for taking the money. These kids are looking for a way out of their situation and when an opportunity comes, they will take it.

There was a time when drug dealers would invest in young basketball players and most of the time, if a player accepted money, the dream to play basketball would fade away because they get caught up in a certain lifestyle. Thank God for runners.

The NBA placing a rule that players can not enter the NBA Draft out of high school and have to wait a year before they are eligible, has put players and universities in a tough situation. Universities are forced to take a one-year player, wasting a scholarship on a player who should not use it when someone who needs it will be left out. A player can try out for a D-League team (NBA’s development league team) for one year to make money honestly, but the guaranteed money from the NBA will not be there. That’s like taking a pay cut. The worse thing that can happen is a player may get serious hurt and miss out on millions of dollars.

This situation with young athletes receiving money and gifts won’t stop, so it must be controlled or given strict penalties.

One way of controlling this is allowing a special player to have an agent to represent them to the school of choice and work out a legal, reasonable financial agreement for one year in which everyone can benefit from, and give a scholarship to someone who will benefit from that. People may be against student athletes getting paid, but they are the ones that are making schools millions of dollars when the academic students are not.

That is a suggestion to control the situation now and avoid penalties. People take things seriously when money is taken from them. Universities don’t really care about banners and titles being taken away because the money has already been made. A player won’t care about a trophy being taken away because of the money earned and agencies never suffer. For universities, when the rules are violated, that particular team sport should not be allowed to participate that following year. A player caught in the infraction should forfeit their pay the following year from their respective sport and the agencies should pay the fines handed down from the NCAA. That’s a lot of money lost.

Receiving money and gifts from runners is not a problem because they do not get physically hurt. Collegiate athletes should get some compensation because of the millions of dollars they make for their schools. Did Michael Phelps (Baltimore) make money while he was apart of the University of Michigan’s swim team during the time he was apart of the U.S. swim team? Until something is done, money and gift giving will continue.

The point is everyone is used, but it everyone’s decision on how they want to be used.