It’s Time: Pay the Next Generation of Athletes What They’re Worth

If we want to give players a better chance, we’ve got to stop the cycle of exploitation before it starts

If you work hard, you should get paid.

It’s an idea as simple as two-plus-two, as old as capitalism, as American as apple pie. But now that a new super league called Overtime Elite is announcing it will pay six-figure salaries to the world’s best high school basketball players, I can already tell you what’s going to happen — the old guard is gonna lose it.

Whenever anyone suggests paying young athletes, people start throwing all kinds of questions at the wall: What about amateurism? Can these players be trusted with money of their own? How much change is too much change? Which is funny, because when I found out about this league, I only had one: What the hell took so long?

Let me provide some context.

In a generation of players who grew up wanting to Be Like Mike, I was the guy set up to do it. I was selected second overall in the 2002 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. I was announced in the starting lineup with the same theme music playing in the arena. I even had the audacity to take MJ’s locker.

This isn’t an accident. It’s how the game was built. Until you sign a pro contract, you’re barred not just from earning money but from learning about it in any real way.

Back then I was one of the most promising prospects in the country. I’d been a McDonald’s All American. I’d won National Player of the Year in college — not once, but twice. And I’d brought Duke a national championship under coach Mike Krzyzewski.

I also thrived off the court. I’d earned a four-year degree in three years — at one of the top universities in the world. I had two middle-class parents who lifted me up every step of the way. On draft night, as I shook David Stern’s hand, I remember looking out at them from that stage and feeling not just like I had made it, but like we had made it.

And I was confident that if anyone had the support they needed to succeed at…