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Pitfalls of living the NBA dream
Big money leads to big problems for some of league’s young millionaires
By Michael Ventre
Oct . 27, 2009
Michael Beasley is back with the Miami Heat. The second-year forward out of Kansas State, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, recently spent a month in a Houston rehabilitation facility for substance abuse and other issues.
What alarmed those in and around the NBA community were messages he posted on Twitter that suggested a young man in pain. Tweets such as “Feelin like it’s not worth livin !!!!!! I’m done” and “I feel like the whole world is against me I can’t win for losin” caused those close to him to worry about his well-being. The situation was exacerbated by photos on his Twitter account of Beasley showing off his tattoos, with what appeared to be a bag of marijuana in the background.
But Beasley appears to be in top shape and in a positive frame of mind, although there are always reminders of his sudden notoriety. On Saturday it was reported that he was photographed sleeping on a boat with empty beer cans and bottles nearby. The pictures were taken while Beasley was on a team outing earlier this month and posted on TMZ.com. Although he claimed he doesn't drink; the captain of the ship said he never saw Beasley imbibe or even touch alcohol; and team officials said he did nothing wrong, it became the latest example of the scrutiny he is now under.
When he spoke to reporters upon his return in September, though, he said he did not have a substance abuse problem and was not depressed. He said the initial messages on Twitter that pointed a harsh spotlight at him were a reaction to being informed that his stay in rehab would last longer than anticipated.
The Heat would not comment on Beasley’s issues, citing privacy concerns, and Beasley himself wouldn’t elaborate to reporters on the specific nature of his treatment.
“Being locked down for as long as I was gave me a chance to really get my life organized and get back in touch with myself,” he said. “I think over this past year, I got caught up in the NBA life, as most of us do. I think this gave me the perfect opportunity to just sit down and evaluate my life and get the good separated from the bad.”
But Beasley is hardly the only young athlete who has experienced rocky moments transitioning from high school and college life into the professional ranks. For every Michael Beasley, there are many whose stories don’t make headlines.
The average sports fan might not have much sympathy for a 20-year-old professional basketball player in the midst of a multi-million-dollar contract — Beasley is set to earn $3.8 million for the 2009-10 season — yet with that hefty salary comes an even heavier load of pressure and expectations.
“I think these kids who are incredibly talented lack the maturity, certainly the maturity to handle the money, fame and lifestyle that goes with playing sports on a professional level,” said Todd Boyd, a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and author of the book Basketball Jones: America, Above the Rim. “You can’t accelerate maturity. Simply because someone has millions of dollars doesn’t mean they’re mature. Most 19-year-olds are too immature to handle that kind of money, unless they grew up as a Rockefeller or something.”
Boyd said the Beasley case is part of a larger discussion taking place about age and eligibility. Beasley was a “one-and-done,” a player who stays in college for the required one season before making himself eligible for the NBA. “I would be in favor of an athlete staying in college for three or four years,” Boyd said. “People say you can get hurt. But you can buy insurance for that. That doesn’t sell me anymore.”
The NBA can’t be accused of failing to help young athletes make the transition into the pros. Mike Bantom, senior vice president of player development for the league and a former NBA player himself, oversees a group of programs that reaches out to incoming young players and offers them whatever assistance they might need in order to adjust to the money, fame and pressure. That particular arm of the NBA has been in place for over 20 years.
“I think what you have now is an even younger, less experienced group of players coming into the league,” Bantom said. “For example, 20 years ago most guys had two or three years of college experience, life experience. Now they’re considerably younger when they come in. They probably have less life experience, and are coming into a faster-paced, pressure-packed world. And media outlets have multiplied, so there’s more hunger for news items, and they’re targets for that.
“The pressure is greater. On the other hand, the support system that’s in place is also better.”
For instance, each year Bantom’s office runs the Rookie Transition Program. Unfortunately, in September of last year the league busted two players during a session of that program — Mario Chalmers and his former Kansas teammate Darrell Arthur — because the scent of marijuana was detected coming from their room. They were sent home and fined $20,000 each. Later it was revealed that Beasley was also in the room, and he was fined $50,000 for not being forthcoming.
That, of course, underlines the fact that, as much effort as the NBA, its teams and its staff put into helping young men handle the move onto the big stage, it still comes down to the individual.
“With some people, it doesn’t matter, they can go right from high school to the pros with no problems,” said Dana Sinclair, a psychologist with Toronto-based Human Performance International who consults with many athletes and professional teams. “Some people can go through four years of university and still have a problem.
“In my practice it comes down to individual responsibility and what characteristics that person has.”
Bantom agrees, and therefore he is reluctant to generalize about his programs and the league’s players. But he said although they often are headstrong and determined to approach the transition on their own terms, each player usually comes to understand the advice he is given.
“If you ask my staff the one thing that is common every year when we bring in 50, 60 rookies in August or September, it’s that, for the most part, they’re not thrilled to be there,” Bantom said. “Sometimes they don’t see the necessity to be there. But after four or five days of hearing from current players and some retired players about what’s going on here and the value of the program, and we talk about the issues, then it starts to sink in.
“Then sometime around January or February when we’re visiting teams and these young players have gone through four or five months of a rigorous program, you start to get feedback that what we were telling them was right, and they were glad to get that advice.”
If there is an early success story for the 2009-10 season in the area of a young player adjusting quickly and comfortably to the NBA, it probably is that of Blake Griffin, the No. 1 overall pick of the Los Angeles Clippers. It might seem odd to declare that now, since he suffered a broken kneecap and will miss six weeks. But Griffin was universally regarded as not only the best player in the draft, but also one of its finest citizens. If anyone can overcome the slow start, he can.
“For me, it’s about being in the right state of mind,” said Griffin, who played two years at Oklahoma before entering the NBA draft. “It’s about understanding that I’ve been blessed with this situation. You have to take advantage of it, but don’t overdo it either. When I was a freshman, I felt I was ready for the NBA, but also felt I would be more prepared if I stayed another year. After another year I felt that much more prepared, both physically and mentally.”
Griffin credits his parents for raising him right, and lamented that he won’t be able to jump in a car and drive an hour away to visit them, like he could while in college. He explained that part of the trick of being on his own and making his way in the NBA world is choosing friends.
“You definitely have to be careful about it,” Griffin said. “It’s not a great thing to have to do, to pick and choose. But you have to. If you get to know somebody, it’s easy to learn their true intentions and what kind of people they are. You have to choose wisely.”
Bantom said part of the NBA’s emphasis for young players is to use sound judgment when making friends.
“We’ll tell a player to be careful who he chooses as friends and who he chooses to keep in his life,” he said. “It’s hard to tell someone who grew up with friends not to associate with them any longer, and in fact, sometimes those people are very good for them. But if someone is dragging them down, we tell them to take a long, hard look.”
Meanwhile, Beasley is back in the bosom of the Miami Heat, joking with teammates and hoping to build upon an inconsistent rookie season in which he averaged 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 24.8 minutes over 81 games. His father, Michael Beasley Sr., said although the numbers are solid, they don’t tell the whole story.
“I think it (the NBA life) wasn’t as easy as he expected,” Beasley Sr. said. “It wasn’t like playing ball in college. The difference between college basketball and professional basketball is that you get paid in the NBA, and it’s not as much fun as it was when you used to play for the love of the game.”
Beasley Sr. said he is confident his son will be able to put the missteps behind him and have a productive career, and he gives the Heat some of the credit.
“They were surprisingly supportive,” he said. “I applaud them for standing by him with what he’s been going through. Most teams turn their back on a player, like what happened with Plaxico Burress (of the NFL’s New York Giants).
“But they stuck by him, so now it’s time for him to show that he can be the player everybody knows he can be.”
Michael Ventre is a contributor to NBCSports.com and a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.
URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/33092644/ns/sports-nba/page/2/
Big money leads to big problems for some of league’s young millionaires
By Michael Ventre
Oct . 27, 2009
Michael Beasley is back with the Miami Heat. The second-year forward out of Kansas State, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, recently spent a month in a Houston rehabilitation facility for substance abuse and other issues.
What alarmed those in and around the NBA community were messages he posted on Twitter that suggested a young man in pain. Tweets such as “Feelin like it’s not worth livin !!!!!! I’m done” and “I feel like the whole world is against me I can’t win for losin” caused those close to him to worry about his well-being. The situation was exacerbated by photos on his Twitter account of Beasley showing off his tattoos, with what appeared to be a bag of marijuana in the background.
But Beasley appears to be in top shape and in a positive frame of mind, although there are always reminders of his sudden notoriety. On Saturday it was reported that he was photographed sleeping on a boat with empty beer cans and bottles nearby. The pictures were taken while Beasley was on a team outing earlier this month and posted on TMZ.com. Although he claimed he doesn't drink; the captain of the ship said he never saw Beasley imbibe or even touch alcohol; and team officials said he did nothing wrong, it became the latest example of the scrutiny he is now under.
When he spoke to reporters upon his return in September, though, he said he did not have a substance abuse problem and was not depressed. He said the initial messages on Twitter that pointed a harsh spotlight at him were a reaction to being informed that his stay in rehab would last longer than anticipated.
The Heat would not comment on Beasley’s issues, citing privacy concerns, and Beasley himself wouldn’t elaborate to reporters on the specific nature of his treatment.
“Being locked down for as long as I was gave me a chance to really get my life organized and get back in touch with myself,” he said. “I think over this past year, I got caught up in the NBA life, as most of us do. I think this gave me the perfect opportunity to just sit down and evaluate my life and get the good separated from the bad.”
But Beasley is hardly the only young athlete who has experienced rocky moments transitioning from high school and college life into the professional ranks. For every Michael Beasley, there are many whose stories don’t make headlines.
The average sports fan might not have much sympathy for a 20-year-old professional basketball player in the midst of a multi-million-dollar contract — Beasley is set to earn $3.8 million for the 2009-10 season — yet with that hefty salary comes an even heavier load of pressure and expectations.
“I think these kids who are incredibly talented lack the maturity, certainly the maturity to handle the money, fame and lifestyle that goes with playing sports on a professional level,” said Todd Boyd, a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and author of the book Basketball Jones: America, Above the Rim. “You can’t accelerate maturity. Simply because someone has millions of dollars doesn’t mean they’re mature. Most 19-year-olds are too immature to handle that kind of money, unless they grew up as a Rockefeller or something.”
Boyd said the Beasley case is part of a larger discussion taking place about age and eligibility. Beasley was a “one-and-done,” a player who stays in college for the required one season before making himself eligible for the NBA. “I would be in favor of an athlete staying in college for three or four years,” Boyd said. “People say you can get hurt. But you can buy insurance for that. That doesn’t sell me anymore.”
The NBA can’t be accused of failing to help young athletes make the transition into the pros. Mike Bantom, senior vice president of player development for the league and a former NBA player himself, oversees a group of programs that reaches out to incoming young players and offers them whatever assistance they might need in order to adjust to the money, fame and pressure. That particular arm of the NBA has been in place for over 20 years.
“I think what you have now is an even younger, less experienced group of players coming into the league,” Bantom said. “For example, 20 years ago most guys had two or three years of college experience, life experience. Now they’re considerably younger when they come in. They probably have less life experience, and are coming into a faster-paced, pressure-packed world. And media outlets have multiplied, so there’s more hunger for news items, and they’re targets for that.
“The pressure is greater. On the other hand, the support system that’s in place is also better.”
For instance, each year Bantom’s office runs the Rookie Transition Program. Unfortunately, in September of last year the league busted two players during a session of that program — Mario Chalmers and his former Kansas teammate Darrell Arthur — because the scent of marijuana was detected coming from their room. They were sent home and fined $20,000 each. Later it was revealed that Beasley was also in the room, and he was fined $50,000 for not being forthcoming.
That, of course, underlines the fact that, as much effort as the NBA, its teams and its staff put into helping young men handle the move onto the big stage, it still comes down to the individual.
“With some people, it doesn’t matter, they can go right from high school to the pros with no problems,” said Dana Sinclair, a psychologist with Toronto-based Human Performance International who consults with many athletes and professional teams. “Some people can go through four years of university and still have a problem.
“In my practice it comes down to individual responsibility and what characteristics that person has.”
Bantom agrees, and therefore he is reluctant to generalize about his programs and the league’s players. But he said although they often are headstrong and determined to approach the transition on their own terms, each player usually comes to understand the advice he is given.
“If you ask my staff the one thing that is common every year when we bring in 50, 60 rookies in August or September, it’s that, for the most part, they’re not thrilled to be there,” Bantom said. “Sometimes they don’t see the necessity to be there. But after four or five days of hearing from current players and some retired players about what’s going on here and the value of the program, and we talk about the issues, then it starts to sink in.
“Then sometime around January or February when we’re visiting teams and these young players have gone through four or five months of a rigorous program, you start to get feedback that what we were telling them was right, and they were glad to get that advice.”
If there is an early success story for the 2009-10 season in the area of a young player adjusting quickly and comfortably to the NBA, it probably is that of Blake Griffin, the No. 1 overall pick of the Los Angeles Clippers. It might seem odd to declare that now, since he suffered a broken kneecap and will miss six weeks. But Griffin was universally regarded as not only the best player in the draft, but also one of its finest citizens. If anyone can overcome the slow start, he can.
“For me, it’s about being in the right state of mind,” said Griffin, who played two years at Oklahoma before entering the NBA draft. “It’s about understanding that I’ve been blessed with this situation. You have to take advantage of it, but don’t overdo it either. When I was a freshman, I felt I was ready for the NBA, but also felt I would be more prepared if I stayed another year. After another year I felt that much more prepared, both physically and mentally.”
Griffin credits his parents for raising him right, and lamented that he won’t be able to jump in a car and drive an hour away to visit them, like he could while in college. He explained that part of the trick of being on his own and making his way in the NBA world is choosing friends.
“You definitely have to be careful about it,” Griffin said. “It’s not a great thing to have to do, to pick and choose. But you have to. If you get to know somebody, it’s easy to learn their true intentions and what kind of people they are. You have to choose wisely.”
Bantom said part of the NBA’s emphasis for young players is to use sound judgment when making friends.
“We’ll tell a player to be careful who he chooses as friends and who he chooses to keep in his life,” he said. “It’s hard to tell someone who grew up with friends not to associate with them any longer, and in fact, sometimes those people are very good for them. But if someone is dragging them down, we tell them to take a long, hard look.”
Meanwhile, Beasley is back in the bosom of the Miami Heat, joking with teammates and hoping to build upon an inconsistent rookie season in which he averaged 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 24.8 minutes over 81 games. His father, Michael Beasley Sr., said although the numbers are solid, they don’t tell the whole story.
“I think it (the NBA life) wasn’t as easy as he expected,” Beasley Sr. said. “It wasn’t like playing ball in college. The difference between college basketball and professional basketball is that you get paid in the NBA, and it’s not as much fun as it was when you used to play for the love of the game.”
Beasley Sr. said he is confident his son will be able to put the missteps behind him and have a productive career, and he gives the Heat some of the credit.
“They were surprisingly supportive,” he said. “I applaud them for standing by him with what he’s been going through. Most teams turn their back on a player, like what happened with Plaxico Burress (of the NFL’s New York Giants).
“But they stuck by him, so now it’s time for him to show that he can be the player everybody knows he can be.”
Michael Ventre is a contributor to NBCSports.com and a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.
URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/33092644/ns/sports-nba/page/2/
