What Do They Know?

Question:  How many economists does it take to write an op-ed piece on the NBA and NFL?  Answer: Two.  Second  Question:  How many economists does it take to write an intelligent op-ed piece on the NBA and NFL?  Answer:  Impossible to say until it’s been done.

If the above suggests I don’t like economists, you’re right.  Two practitioners of “the dismal profession” wrote a piece in the Tribune the other day about how unfair pro basketball and football are to require draftees to attend college first, one year for the NBA and three for the NFL.  I’ve been reading the one guy long enough to know these rules offend his devotion to the free market, a god fairer and wiser than all others.

Anybody can point out the hypocrisy of college sports; I sure have.  Now offer up a well-conceived alternative.  You’d think economists would have the know-how to that and sketch out exactly how a basketball or football minor-league operation would work; they could even sell their blueprint to the interested parties.  But that’s detail work, and big-idea guys can never seem to be bothered.

And they certainly don’t want to be bothered with the example of Jahlil Okafor.  The Philadelphia 76ers’ third-year center has thoroughly worn out his welcome in the City of Brotherly Love.  A combination of injury and immaturity—Okafor came into the league as a 19-year old—has Philadelphia management eager to find a trade partner willing to take on a player known to get into parking-lot fights and driving his car in excess of 100 mph? 

Theoretically, if Okafor had stayed in school, he would have had the chance to grow up while playing against his own age-cohort.  Don’t underestimate the importance of that second factor.  A rookie going up against a (much) larger and smarter veteran risks injury as well as humiliation.  Quick, count all the 20-year old running backs in the NFL.  Turn pro too soon, and you may as well swim with the sharks.

I wonder, would Okafor or any other teenaged athlete stay in the minors three or four years learning his craft?  That’s a question too hard for a roomful of economists to answer.