Jeff Van Gundy has somehow grown into one of the best on-air analysts on NBA broadcasts.
He may be the single-best in the business, although Doris Burke will give him a run for his money. During the end of last night’s Golden State-Minnesota game, Van Gundy sounded off on the NCAA, the hypocrisy of amateurism and just how stupid it is that we still refer to kids as “student-athletes” while shipping them off to China for a week to play in a game:
Jeff Van Gundy and Dave Pasch discussing the UCLA incident in China, and also college athletics. pic.twitter.com/llrdhqt1vs
— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) November 9, 2017
Van Gundy could not be more spot-on with this.
The entire purpose of the game being played between UCLA and Georgia Tech in Shanghai is so that the Pac-12 can try and expand its brand. There are hundreds of millions of NBA fans in China, a country where Stephon Marbury has grown into one of the most famous and most popular athletes they’ve ever had.
The Chinese love basketball.
It makes perfect business sense for the Pac-12 to do what they can to try and grow the popularity of college basketball there.
But it is the height of hypocrisy to send those kids to the other side of the planet in an effort to profit off of them while they miss out on those all-important classes, the only thing that they are actually compensated with.