harveycmd

You may be right. I consider elite lateral quickness and skill to be a pretty big deal in basketball. I didn't mention Martin. I said Richard. Further, an elite trait or two won't guarantee NBA success, but it's sure hard to get to the NBA without something elite. Again, I didn't see Duru elevate and shoot from the perimeter. All set shots. Didn't see him go over the rim fighting for the ball. Didn't see him shoot or drive quickly. He could be a decent college player without that.

I'd say four. Clayton had elite skill. Condon and Chenyilu played above the rim in the post, especially on defense. Richard could get up, shoot, and power his was to the basket with quickness. Maybe Duru can do something like that. I just didn't see it. I didn't see a single jump shot. Didn't see him go above rim level for a rebound. Didn't see any kind of burst or ball quickness. I sure hope he has some of it.

I didn't see what I would consider NBA upside. Looks more like a rotational piece to me. Perhaps the raw development tools are there if he has the work ethic and determination.

After watching some Duru film, I was a little disappointed. Open set shots and plodding drives. Didn't see any signs of elite athleticism. Hope he has it.

There's no way of knowing how this will definitively play out. It's never a good a idea to risk years of problems for a small time, potential gain. We're talking high school recruits.

Full on bag game is what some are effectively doing now with "illegal" promises and payments. We have stubborn administrators refusing to admit that the only way to get a handle on this is to make high value athletes employees and negotiate deals. It doesn't matter if they don't like it.

Are there penalties in place for punishing this kind of activity? If the hammer isn't dropped on this kind of stuff, it won't stop.

To further elaborate: I must have read and taught James Madison's Federalist 10 to students over a hundred times. Of course, Madison wrote the US Constitution. I spent countless hours explaining that, contrary to popular media, the foundation of the US was not based on anthropological egalitarianism, i.e. "equality." Rather it was grounded in property as the necessary practical consequence of cognitive hierarchy. "The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties." A student asked me if I could "show" them what this meant. My response was that history shows it, but there isn't an image or series of images that communicates its truth if you don't understand the conceptual basis of its truth.

Concepts, boys, concepts. The concept is more important than the image.

Randy White.

Grant Hill says the best player he ever played against was Kobe, not Jordan.

Fat boy Luka and Grandpa LeBrick are out of favor with new owner Walter. Thank god. Can't let stupid Mavs fans and hype rule. Package both and get real title winning players. Gotta fire Pelinka find a real GM.

For the LeBrick lovers out there, like CJ. Looking at all time stats. Kareem has a higher career free throw percentage than LeBrick. That's a 7'2" gangly center who is a better all around shooter than a 6'8" forward. Skill matters.

Use to hear about this all the time. How Magic was the only player in the history of world versatile enough to play any position on the floor (1-5) and do it well enough to win a title while doing so. Now we have pencil goobers hammering us with analytics.

Lakers sold for $10 billion. Highest price in history. Reminds me of Magic being the only rookie to ever win Finals MVP. Only point guard to ever play center in the NBA Finals. 42 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists in game 6 clincher when he was 20. Convinced head coach Paul Westphal to start him at center in place of injured Kareem.

This goes way beyond sports. We're talking about tyranny on a historically grand scale. Have said that, I do intellectually admire a few Jesuit academic orders.

I'm indifferent to that. The only school I'd positively root for ND to beat is the criminal sooners.

Remember that the lowest ranked WR in last year's group, McCutcheon, is showing the most thus far. There's quite a bit of future talent on campus budgeted into the equation.

The "committed" part of this is more tenuous than ever. These kids are being promised millions by some schools that is very unlikely to ever be paid. When they start figuring that out, it will be interesting.

Can't stand Notre Dame, but hope he does really well unless it's a game winner against Texas.

Don't think Texas views it the same way. One of my favorite recruiting stories from last year is that DK Moore asked Texas for tickets to the Georgia game in Austin. Texas told him no. You can guess why.

There's the locker room dynamic of this as well. To this point, there hasn't been a team that ridiculously overpaid high school recruits and made it work with team culture and chemistry. Aggy '22 class being a prime example. Legally, I'd guess some things will happen quickly. The likelihood of the clearing house being able to reject third party payments is preposterous on its face. I can't think of a high profile example of anything like it in US history. I doubt the "affiliated" cap on NIL deals last very long, but it may make it through this cycle. What's affiliated? Who decides? The clearing house is not a disinterested third party. All to say, those schools that have kept spending like there's no tomorrow will at best face a period of legal limbo that's unlikely to permit them to hang on to most of the funny money deals.