College Basketball Is Better Than The NBA

Now I know what you’re thinking when you read the title of this article. Your first instinct was to click and read slander about the National Basketball Association. Now that I have your attention, college basketball has been extremely popular this year, and we might have a class for the ages with the NBA Draft creeping up in a few months. Former Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball legend and NBA player, Jay Williams, spoke on the topic by saying, “The college basketball product is better than the NBA product right now.” His reasoning for this has to do with the way NBA teams are tanking and stars are sitting out a lot more than what we are used to.

First things first, to dissect his point, I completely agree with the tanking aspect of the NBA. With the way this draft class is looking, I would preach for my team, the Miami Heat, to tank as well. We also have to shout out teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs, who have mastered the rebuild. The formula for setting your franchise up is acquiring a ton of draft capital and using that as an asset to build a win now contender. The Charlotte Hornets are also on the rise now that they finally have a competent team. You can thank the talent they drafted in Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball, and Kon Knueppel. So realistically, if your team was at the bottom of the barrel roster wise, would you blame teams for tanking?

On the opposing side, it does make the NBA product weaker, as teams are not going to give maximum effort and fans are going to be unhappy when they attend games. That is where the “load management” narrative about NBA stars comes up. Fans pay their hard earned money to watch their favorite player, but because they slipped on a banana peel the morning of the game, they are now out for the game. If your best player is constantly out due to whatever the case may be, you are typically going to draw less revenue since no one is going to pay to watch players sit.

There are exceptions, however. The game is very fast paced, and that comes with more injuries. We have seen superstars like Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid who have been hurt. Their teams mismanaged their injuries, and it set their careers back in a way. Now that they have fully recovered properly, they are playing great this season. It is the safer route to manage a player’s injury by slowly bringing them back into the lineup and having them play on a minutes restriction. But enough about the NBA. Aside from all the narratives, college basketball is peaking.

To give it to you straight, if you have not kept up with college basketball, what are you doing? The product is indeed at its highest this year, with star studded talent. The talent is so skilled and prominent that some players may question whether they want to enter the draft or wait another year to go higher in next year’s draft. Any team that is in the lottery cannot go wrong at all. I would love to name every great college player right now, but I will just throw out some names that will have you in awe. AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer. If your team has a top three pick and these names are not taken in the top three, expect your GM to get fired.

You have a Kobe-esque scorer like Darryn Peterson who makes the game look effortless. AJ Dybantsa is a 6’9” wing who has the tools to be the next Tracy McGrady in the future. Last butcertainly not least, Cam Boozer, a dominant forward for Duke, is having a remarkable season that is getting overlooked because it is not flashy. The son of former NBA great Carlos Boozer, Cam Boozer’s game will indeed translate to the NBA with his ability to score anywhere on the floor, especially in the paint, along with his playmaking ability for his size. If you ever have free time, I highly suggest you go on YouTube and watch these players or tune into their next game. March Madness is also approaching.

Is the college basketball product better than the NBA? I would not go as far as saying that. I just appreciate the game as a whole. The NBA this year has been great so far. Sure, there are flaws, but nothing is really perfect. For once, there is a lot of parity in the NBA. You could not confidently choose a winner for this year’s NBA Finals if your house was on the line. I understand that college basketball is on fire, but that does not mean we should bring down one product to uplift another. My take is to appreciate both and realize we have the luxury of watching great basketball from both the NBA and NCAA.

I will leave you with this. Who do you think will go number one in this year’s upcoming draft?