NBA hopeful's mom likens NCAA to slavery; Condoleezza Rice defends planned reforms
The mother of former Duke star Wendell Carter, pictured, likened the NCAA to slavery.
(Reuters/USA Today Sports)
The mother of a top NBA prospect, and former college basketball star, likened the NCAA to slavery and a prison system Monday in response to reforms suggested by a commission led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Kylia Carter, mother of former Duke basketball player Wendell Carter, contended that educating players on their career options was more important than paying players, according to ESPN.
“When you remove all the bling and the bells and the sneakers and all that, you’ve paid for a child to come to your school to do what you wanted them to do for you, for free, and you made a lot of money when he did that, and you’ve got all these rules in place that say he cannot share in any of that,” Carter said. “The only other time when labor does not get paid but yet someone else gets profits and the labor is black and the profit is white, is in slavery.”
“The only other time when labor does not get paid but yet someone else gets profits and the labor is black and the profit is white, is in slavery.”
Carter, who played college basketball herself at Ole Miss, explained that the reforms brought on by the Commission of College Basketball – including ending the "one-and-done" rule, strict penalties for cheaters, creating more transparency around recruiting events and having players get paid for their image and likeness – was a flawed solution.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her commission's planned reforms.
(Reuters)
Rice, in an interview Wednesday with USA Today, defended the commission’s findings and plans for actions, saying the rules as they are today are “incomprehensible.”
“And sometimes when something’s incomprehensible, you have to go ahead and say, ‘This is incomprehensible,’ which means it probably isn’t right. And I thought that in the report, we were pretty clear, that we think the framework doesn’t work,” she said.
Rice pushed on the notion that amateur players should be paid for their image and likeness.
“We believe that students ought to be able to benefit from name, image and likeness, but you can’t decide a program until you know the legal parameters,” Rice said. “That was the point. I think some of the commentary suggested that we didn’t really speak on this issue. I think we did speak on this issue, it’s just that we understand there’s a legal framework that has to be developed first.”
“We believe that students ought to be able to benefit from name, image and likeness, but you can’t decide a program until you know the legal parameters.”
Carter, in Monday’s meeting, didn’t think that paying the players would be the right solution and that she didn’t trust the NCAA.
“If you pay the players and kept the system like it is, it would still destroy them — it would just destroy them faster,” Carter said. “That’s not the solution. Don’t get me wrong, it helps, but not without educating them on this process.”