bullshit

DeMarcus Cousins calls the NCAA ‘bullshit’ following Zion Williamson’s injury

Zion Williamson suffered a knee injury when his Nike sneaker collapsed early in a game against North Carolina, causing him to fall awkwardly. On Thursday, the team announced that Williamson has a Grade 1 knee sprain, and he is day-to-day. That’s a lot better than it could have been.

Since his injury, the prep-to-pros debate has been revitalized, with NBA players like Isaiah Thomas and Donovan Mitchell joining in on Twitter.

Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins was even more blunt. He said Williamson should immediately sit out, calling the NCAA “bullshit.”

Cousins: Knowing what I know now, college is bullshit. College basketball, the NCAA, is bullshit. My advice to him is to do what’s best for you and your family. Obviously college... it does nothing for you at this point. You’ve proven you’re the No. 1 pick. You’ve proven your talent. You’re ready for the next level. It’s happening.

When I was at that age, you enjoy the moment, the experience and all that. But there’s so many risks involved to get to the ultimate goal, which is this level.

Cousins went on to reveal what he’s learned since his lone season at Kentucky.

Cousins: Just how crooked the NCAA business is. I saw a post the other day that showed the highest ticket for the UNC-Duke game was $2,500-$3,500. How much does Zion Wiliamson get? That’s who they’re coming to see. So how much does he get? Who does it go to? How does it benefit any player on that team? But they’re able to give $20 and a meal so this “bad kid” can get a bad rep, “uncoachable,” “thugs,” whatever it might be. It’s bullshit. It’s been bullshit.

When asked about potential solutions, Cousins referenced the G League route. This season, the G League will implement a new rule which allows a $125,000 payment to a select group of “elite” high school athletes, which is an increase from the roughly $7,000 per month wages players typically make over a five-month season.

Cousins sees its future, though. “The G League route, I think that’s helpful,” he said. “Obviously it’s not a popular thing right now, but I think it will grow over time. You’ve seen a couple of young guys enter that program already.”

If Williamson’s injury costs him his season at Duke, or spots in the upcoming NBA Draft, it could have much bigger implications.

Change In NBA Draft Age Restrictions Provides Protection, Benefits To Elite Players

Duke's Zion Williamson sits on the floor following an injury during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against North Carolina in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)ASSOCIATED PRESS

DeMarcus Cousins has never been one to mince words.

So while the Golden State Warriors center acknowledged to reporters on Thursday that he enjoyed his lone collegiate season at Kentucky, he also made one other point abundantly clear. He is no fan of how the NCAA goes about its business.

 “Knowing what I know now, college basketball is bullshit,” said Cousins, whose rookie contract with the Sacramento Kings in 2011 was worth $4 million and who now is under a one-year deal with the Warriors worth $5.3 million. “College basketball, the NCAA is bullshit.”

Cousins’ commentary came on the heels of Duke freshman Zion Williamson avoiding serious injury when his shoe blow out in the first minute of the top-ranked Blue Devils' game against North Carolina. Williamson mildly sprained his right knee, which led many to suggest that Williamson should consider shutting himself down to avoid risking further injury ahead of the NBA Draft.

But Cousins’ comments also came on the same day that USA Today reported that the NBA has submitted a formal proposal that would lower the draft-eligible age from 19 to 18 by the 2022 Draft.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is on the record saying that the current 19-year-old age limit is not working for either the NBA or for college basketball. Silver told reporters at the NBA owners meeting last summer that in speaking with Condoleezza Rice, who chaired the Commission on College Basketball, it was his understanding that “the college community is saying we don’t want those (one-and-done) players anymore".

That admission, Silver said, “tips the scales” toward the notion the NBA should allow 18-year-olds to declare for the draft.

Such a move would be a game changer, according to Ramogi Huma, the founder, and president of the College Athletes Players Association. Huma, a former UCLA football player who now advocates the rights of college athletes, said Friday that not forcing elite players like Williamson to choose between a multi-million payday and attending college -- even for a year -- would drastically impact the sporting landscape.

What happened Wednesday to Williamson, he said, provides the perfect case study.

“I think Zion Williamson’s injury reflects the risk that anyone who is otherwise forced to play college sports for peanuts relative to what they would have received in the NBA is at risk for,” Huma said in a telephone interview.

Huma cites an Indiana University study that found that two-thirds of Division I athletes will suffer a serious injury during their college careers. Fifty percent of athletes across all sports will go on to suffer chronic college sports injuries. Huma said that the NBA providing high school players the option to enter the draft at 18 would provide those athletes better protection than they currently have as scholarship athletes.

“To be forced into college and really lose so much of their market value, so much of the value they have and put everything at risk arbitrarily is just not right,” Huma said.

Williamson is widely considered the far-and-away choice to be the top pick in this year’s NBA Draft, which would bring a $12.6 million deal for a four-year contract. Williamson will also be in line for a lucrative sneaker deal that only adds to his payday. LeBron James inked a $90 million shoe deal contract with 2003, which now, 16 years later, could mean close to a $100 million for a multi-year pact for Williamson.

Regardless of the riches that await him, Williamson has said in previous interviews that he wanted to experience college life and is committed to helping lead Duke to a national championship. But those desires won’t last beyond this season, during which Williamson is averaging 21.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

And yet, as long as he remains a college player holding amateur status, Williamson cannot profit from what his presence means – both for Duke and for the NCAA. Ticket prices for Wednesday’s Tobacco Road showdown soared in excess of $3,500 with Williamson being the main attraction. That fact alone was part of Cousins’ beef with the NCAA, which continues to benefit from star players – many of whom are only in college while they wait to turn 19 and become draft eligible.

Meanwhile, those same players must adhere to strict NCAA regulations that restrict players from accepting any financial assistance while they are part of the college student-athlete ranks.

“If (college players) were to get $20 and a free meal, they’re this bad kid,” Cousins told reporters Thursday. “They get a bad rep, they’re ‘uncoachable or thugs’, whatever the case may be. It’s bullshit.”

Cousins wasn’t alone in his criticism of the NCAA or the current one-and-done college basketball landscape. ESPN’s Dick Vitale, who coined the phrase "Diaper Dandy" to describe young talent, took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with the current system.

As the NBA and the Players Association explore whether 18-year-olds are eligible to jump from high school to the professional ranks, Vitale made it clear he’s firmly planted in the camp of the haters of the one-year campus experience.

“I think they have to look seriously at allowing these kids right out of high school,” Vitale said in a video posted to his Twitter feed on Thursday. “To me, it’s a farce. The one-and-done is a farce. There’s no rhyme or reason to the term student-athlete.

“They should definitely, definitely allow kids, if they want to go the NBA, so be it. If they’re going to step on a college campus, they’re going to be there for three years.”

Huma believes the NCAA will eventually have to allow college players to be compensated. But what form that takes and how it impacts when the decisions of elite athletes such as Williamson remains to be determined.

Williamson’s injury, however, has changed the conversation. Huma characterizes the Duke star as the “elite of the elite” and compares his situation to that if James would have been forced to attend college. While Williamson's injury was not as serious as originally feared, the prime-time moment has made a serious impact.

The timing of the injury – and the stage on which it took place – has also put Williamson in a different light. It could, Huma said, help to speed up change.

“When you see an athlete trapped illegally in a system that doesn’t give them their value and injures themselves a couple months before they really could make some good money, it’s really shocking,” Huma said. “There’s more a lot more perspective when that happens.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Lies Again, Claims Trump Has Never 'Done Anything But Condemn Violence'

Photo: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is confusing. I don’t know if “Suckabee” is a shameless liar who’d do anything to keep her job and in the good graces of her orange master or if she honestly believes the bullshit that is coming out of her mouth.

On Friday, amid news reports that a white nationalist member of the Coast Guard had amassed an arsenal and had a reported kill list of Democratic targets and members of the media, Suckabee said in front of Satan and err’body that President Trump has done nothing but condemn violence.

“I certainly don’t think that the president, at any point, has done anything but condemn violence against journalists or anyone else,” Sanders said to members of the media, Newsweek reports. “In fact, every single time something like this happens, the president is typically one of the first people to condemn the violence, and the media is the first people to blame the president.

“We should all join together and start condemning the violence, whether it’s against members of the media, whether it’s against Democrats, Republicans, any person in this country. That is unacceptable, and that’s why every time it comes up we have been consistent and repeatedly said that we condemn violence in all forms.”

Ok, I’m not confused anymore, Suckabee is aligned in the president’s mission and is complicit in spinning his divisive rhetoric into more palatable sound bites. While it sounds good to claim that the president has never condoned violence, the truth, which doesn’t live in the White House, is that the president is at the forefront of calling for violence against his detractors. Trump often encourages the band of deplorables who follow him to his mindless rallies to “rough up” people who interrupt his speeches.

He also praised punk-ass Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) for body-slamming a reporter.

“Never wrestle him, you understand that?” Trump said at a rally. “Any guy who can do a body slam is my kind of guy.”

Here’s a mashup of all the times that Trump has called for violence.

From Newsweek:

Federal prosecutors alleged that Christopher P. Hasson, 49, had a hit list of individuals to target, as well as a drafted message about planning a biological attack to kill as many people as possible. On the hit list were New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, CNN hosts Chris Cuomo and Van Jones, MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and John Podesta, and the former campaign chair of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, among others.

“The defendant is a domestic terrorist bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct,” prosecutors stated in court documents.

Suckabee knows exactly what she’s doing and is as bad, if not worse, than her orange master, who commands her to spout this bullshit. The White (Nationalist) House has an allergy to the truth. They play to one group of people—the group that actually believes as they do and is willing to take up arms to protect their beliefs—beliefs that the White House not only massages but emboldens.

And Suckabee is on the frontline.