Being a star athlete in college can be difficult and beneficial on many different levels. Most of the star athletes in men's College Basketball come from poverty filled neighborhoods and low-income families. Since the NBA has taken away the players choice of jumping straight into the pros right after high school, John Calipari has helped his athletes discover a new method to make their transition into the pros a quick process, despite the disappearance of the luxury.
NCAA's selfish viewpoint
The NCAA established a rule in 2005 that prevented athletes from being able to enter the NBA draft straight out of high school.
The rule forces athletes to either play a mandatory one season in a college or university or play overseas basketball until eligibility is established. With this rule, the NCAA wants people to believe that the rule is to benefit students education, but the rule seems to be only to favor the colleges financially as players are not allowed to make money while attending school. How can this be fair to the kids who come from poor homes and are the answer to their family struggles? Why can't an athlete like any other human being that attends college receive income off of their talents that the college constantly benefits from? The only answer seems to be to enjoy the financial gain that comes from a star athlete attending the university and use that to continue paying for full scholarships.
That is just outright selfish and it hinders the player of any interest of wanting to further pursue and education.
John Calipari recruits the best talent in poor neighborhoods
In an interview during a segment of ESPN's 30 for 30 episode on John Calipari, John stated that "he came from a poor household growing up and lived in a home that was only worth about $12-13,000." Growing up in poverty, planted the roots that helped John with finding the best talent college basketball has to offer today. As popular as he's grown over the years and the success he's achieved, he still uses his beginning tactics to maintain a winning organization.
Calipari's UMASS beginnings
John Calipari caught his first big coaching opportunity when at the young age of 22, he was hired as the head coach of the University of Massachusetts in 1988. In a very competitive Atlantic Ten conference, Calipari was able to make the underdog UMass a competitive force to be reckoned with. He took young kids like Marcus Camby and Bobby Rue, who both came from poor neighborhoods, and made them stand out athletes in a NCAA filled with plenty of five-star recruits.
That confidence he instilled in them helped them believe they were capable of making it through to play professional basketball in the NBA.
One-and-Done and Kentucky
Before John Calipari got the head coaching job at the University of Kentucky, he was able to coach three stars athletes at the University of Memphis that were able to go pro after just one season of college. After getting his dream head coaching job at Kentucky, he brought along with him a new approach to assist star athletes with the rule established by the NBA in 2005.
Calipari assembles teams full of five-star recruits and builds unbreakable chemistry between them that allows all of their talents to be shown off while playing for a well-established university.
In return, the NCAA and the rest of the world get to witness teams full of future NBA Hall of Famers that bring the NCAA millions of dollars of revenue. Calipari shows his support for his players by encouraging them to enter the NBA draft if he knows they're good enough. He does not allow his selfishness hold a player back from financially earning his worth, and most importantly take care of their families. Despite the negative criticism from his unique approach, John Calipari is changing lives of young men and successfully preparing them for life after college basketball.
