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Earlier this week, the NCAA announced it would be instituting a new rule that would require prospective NBA agents to meet certain conditions if they want to represent student-athletes who are exploring the option of going pro—the most notable of which is the possession of a bachelor’s degree.
Sources: The NCAA has officially added criteria for agents who wish to represent student athletes testing the waters for the NBA Draft.
Criteria:
– Bachelor's Degree
– Certified with NBPA for a minimum of three years
– Take an in-person exam at the NCAA Office in Indianapolis— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) August 6, 2019
It was unclear exactly what the motivation behind the new regulations was but people were quick to dub it the “Rich Paul Rule,” a reference to LeBron James’ agent, who’s done a pretty damn good job representing the superstar despite having never graduated from college.
It didn’t take long for the rule to come to LeBron’s attention and he quickly issued a response in the form of a couple of tweets where he made it very clear how he felt about it.
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 6, 2019
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop! They BIG MAD 😡 and Scared 😱. Nothing will stop this movement and culture over here. Sorry! Not sorry. 😁✌🏾
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 6, 2019
It appears the NCAA took notice of James taking notice, and on Wednesday, it decided to issue a response to the criticism its been on the receiving end over the past few days.
https://twitter.com/InsidetheNCAA/status/1159253597676351493
In the statement, the NCAA admitted you can achieve success without having a college degree but is apparently not willing to allow people who want to be agents to attempt to do that because logic and reasoning has never been the organization’s strong suit.
I’d say I expected better from the NCAA, but given their long history of paving an endless road to hell with good intentions, I guess I should have seen this coming.