The missing links of education aren’t just an issue for youths. Even the men who make millions in the NBA hit walls in their post-playing careers.
Last August at the Rookie Transition Program, which is jointly sponsored by the National Basketball Players Association and the NBA, Donovan Mitchell sat through seminars on managing money and going into business ventures. Among those seminars were stories of players who had regrets. They had jumped into something too fast they hadn’t understood; they spent money as if it were endless; they wished they had something to fall back on after their careers were over.
“We had guys come back and say they wished they had focused on getting their degree or going through the classes that the [players association] gives you,” Mitchell says. “Without that, they’re struggling to find jobs, they’re struggling to get back in.”
Finding out what’s next always has been a problem for athletes in any league. Most careers end as more conventional careers are blossoming. Money runs out and athletes need other skills to survive.
In the NBA, a chief example of the problem (and solution) is Antoine Walker, who made more than $108 million in contracts over his career but filed for bankruptcy two years after it ended. He now makes a living as a TV and radio broadcaster, as well as a consultant to Morgan Stanley, where he helped pioneer a financial literacy program designed to help other athletes avoid his mistakes.
The NBPA has become more conscious of the issue. In the last collective bargaining agreement, funds in the player benefit pool were allocated to help NBA players and former players gain access to education. Part of the benefit is an academic advisor, Hannah Alattar, who has been on the job for four months. She calls the outreach she’s gotten so far “a trickle,” but she’s noticed more players from non-playoff teams are calling her for help as the offseason looms.
“It is a trend in that direction, players wanting to finish their education,” Alattar says. “Getting back into the mentality of school again, getting back into that routine of classwork or coursework can take a while.”
Mitchell isn’t the only Jazzman with plans to finish his degree, but it was conditional for the rookie guard when he decided to leave Louisville last year.
Mitchell’s mother, Nicole, researched the number of African-American men’s Division I athletes who don’t graduate (the most recent NCAA data listed it at 22 percent) and found it discouraging.
“It’s so high, and it’s so sad, and it’s mostly boys of color,” she said. “You give your university all your resources for four years and you don’t walk away with a degree. To me it’s a sin. All you get is bad knees and no education.”
Donovan Mitchell hardly could afford to pass up a chance to play in the NBA and maximize his earning potential. But Nicole wouldn’t be satisfied unless he agreed to finish his education, which Louisville pays for up to four years after an athlete leaves school.
Mitchell’s degree-in-progress is in communications. Louisville has a broadcasting program, and former Cardinals Russ Smith and Luke Hancock both did sideline reporting at high school games while in college, Mitchell says, which he could see himself doing at some point, regardless of his stature within the NBA.
Regardless of what his future holds, Mitchell wants it to include a degree. And as far as he was concerned, basketball simply puts a pause on that process.
“That’s one of the things that [my mom] really set in my head: You can take basketball away. God forbid, you can take my legs away. But you can’t take my degree away,” he said. “I worked and earned that.”
Clarification • An earlier version of this story said the Rookie Training Program is sponsored by the National Basketball Players Association. It is also sponsored by the NBA.
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