Each year on November 8th, thousands of the best high school basketball players sign their National Letter of Intent, officially handing over their rights to the NCAA. While many Division I basketball players receive a full scholarship to attend their respective university, the NCAA prohibits athletes from seeking compensation for the use of their names, images or likenesses in television broadcasts, video games, and memorabilia sales. Additionally, besides for their scholarships and meager stipends, athletes are prohibited from being compensated by their university. Additionally, last year, the NCAA posted $1.1 billion in revenue, while individual high major basketball programs often see tens of millions in annual revenues themselves.
Participating in college basketball, which effectively economically disenfranchises players from profiting from their own likeness, has become a “common sense” form of hegemonic domination. When high school coaches refer to “playing at the next level”, they are ubiquitously referencing playing in the NCAA. While the vast majority of college athletes will never have a marketable enough image for the NCAA rules to have a significantly negative economic effect on them, for “Blue Chips”, or the top players in each graduate class, this rule is highly unprofitable. In the United States, the NCAA has hegemony over the sport of basketball, especially since the NBA shut out the best high school athletes from being able to turn professional straight from high school, with the institution of “Article X” in 2005.
However, one dad is attempting to tear down the entire model that the NCAA has dominated for decades. Led by the bombastic, outlandish, and imposing patriarch, Lavar, the Ball family has taken the basketball world by storm. Not only has Lavar figured out how to dominate the mainstream news cycle, but his merchandising company, Big Baller Brand, has achieved extraordinary success. While the oldest Ball son, Lonzo, took a traditional route, playing through high school and one year at UCLA before making it to the NBA, Lavar Ball calculated that it would be in his two younger sons’ best interest to fully circumvent the NCAA. By avoiding the restrictive NCAA, and placing his sons LiAngelo and LaMelo in a professional league in Lithuania, the two younger Ball brothers have been able to use their popularity to sell Big Baller Brand merchandise with a surprising amount of success. While LiAngelo and LaMelo’s basketball skills are debatable, their celebrity is undeniable, as they have amassed 2.3 million and 3.6 million Instagram followers respectively. Though it is unclear whether or not they will spark a “revolutionary” trend, their actions can certainly be characterized as counter-hegemonic.
I think this idea is really interesting especially in light of all the scandals that have been going on in the NCAA. For much too long college athletes have been profited off and had nothing to rely on in case their dreams didnt come true. However, now it seems like those who once seemed untouchable are being sought after. With this being said, we are yet to see some programs such as Duke or Kentucky come down even though one could suspect they are also doing the same thing. Does this show how tough it is to truly shake up the structure as it seems that who are at the top are barely ever shaken by the rumbles that go on under?
I think that this argument about the NCAA and the Ball family relates to the idea of hegemonic rule attempting to concede a small amount to subalterns in order to appear to represent their interests. The NCAA (Hegemony) offers this message of education and a love of the sport, arguing that paying players or allowing players to sign apparel contracts takes away from this integral aspect of NCAA athletics. In reality, the NCAA doesn’t care about a love for the sport but more so the revenue behind it. The organization seems to represent the student-athlete of all levels but instead represents itself and the men at the top of both the NCAA and these universities that make millions of dollars in revenue from a product produced through the blood sweat and tears of un-payed players. Of course it doesn’t make sense to pay me to play Williams Football but say an Alabama player whose academic career is compromised and altered in order to create a product for both the 110,000 in attendance but the millions at home. The NCAA sees its players as products, not people and thus creates a hegemony that often times controls an athletes time in college and beyond.
I love the Ball family. While Lavar is outspoken, hyperbolic, and extremely annoying at times, I think he truly does have the best interests of both his sons and all young, talented players at heart. I wonder, however, if he would have still decided to move LaMelo and LiAngelo to Lithuania if LiAngelo had not gotten caught shoplifting in a Chinese store while on a team trip there with UCLA. Just a year ago, Lavar was saying how his grand plan was to have his 3 boys play for UCLA and then all play for the Lakers, definitely not mentioning Lithuania in any way. This diminishes some of his validity for me, and allows people to more accurately make the argument that he is self-consumed and greedy. Is he truly behind challenging the hegemonic NCAA, or is he only doing so because the circumstances his child put himself in required him to do so?