Until 2006, there were two major ways to get into the NBA. A player could either enter the league straight out of high school, or they could complete their college career and then declare for the NBA Draft.
The first route was usually taken by once-in-a-lifetime talents such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. But that doesn’t mean players who came to the league after college were bad. If anything, they honed their skills to an even better level. After all, Michael Jordan entered the NBA after college. Jordan’s longtime rival Charles Barkley was another excellent player who took the longer route to the NBA.
But if there was one thing that used to make players want to go to the league straight out of high school, it was earning money as soon as possible. Because college athletes aren’t paid for their skills. Similar was the case with Barkley.
Charles Barkley On Why College Players Should Be Paid
Charles Barkley has been pretty blunt about his takes on basketball, be it the NBA or the NCAA. In a 2014 interview, Barkley discussed the importance of college players getting paid. While doing so, he also revealed that he took around $20,000 under the table when he was still in college.
(Starts at 2:50)
“I think the most I took was like $20,000. I’m not talking about a million dollars. It made me stay in school another year. $20,000, that’s not a lot of money, but I was able to do some stuff for my mother and grandmother, and I had some spending money. OK, I’m cool. I don’t have to go into the real world or the NBA after one college season.”
As Barkley mentioned, a small amount of money can make some difference for the players, and they may end up completing their full college course. Nowadays, more and more players are signing G-League contracts instead of completing college to start making money prior to their careers in the NBA.
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