Ben Simmons caused quite a stir in his Showtime documentary One and Done when he said that the time spent at LSU was a “waste of time.” Simmons pulled no punches in saying that he was not a fan of the NBA’s one and done rule and said that the NCAA is “really f**ked up.”
While speaking at LSU’s inaugural Sports Communication Summit earlier this month, NCAA President Mark Emmert commented on what Simmons had to say and admitted that he is not a fan of the NBA’s age requirement and he would love to see the rule go.
More from The Advocate:
“I was reading today where someone who played basketball at LSU was very unhappy with the one-and-done rule,” said Emmert, speaking Wednesday at LSU’s inaugural Sports Communication Summit at the Manship School of Mass Communication. “That’s not our rule. That’s the NBA’s rule. But (he says) it’s another stupid NCAA rule.
“The one-and-done rule is something I’ve made no secret about how much I dislike it,” Emmert said. “It makes a farce of going to school. But if you just want to play in the NBA, you can do that. You can go to Europe or play at a prep school until you’re 19.
“I’d love nothing more than for the NBA to get rid of that rule. We’ve made it really clear to the (NBA) players union and the leadership of the NBA that we very much would like it changed.”
Emmert also said that no one “puts a gun to [a kid’s] head” to make them go to college:
“If someone wants to be a pro basketball player and doesn’t want to go to college, don’t go to college,” he said. “We don’t put a gun to your head. First and foremost, it’s about being a student at a university. We’re in the human development business.”
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