Last October HBO debuted a sports documentary called “Student Athlete”, which examined the current state of American college athletics and the impact that its myriad rules have on players and their families. The presentation was a result of a collaborative effort from numerous notable names: SpringHill Entertainment (founded by LeBron James/Maverick Carter), United Masters (created by former Interscope Records president Steve Stoute), and a pair of powerhouse directors in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (2-time Academy Award winner for Best Short Subject Documentary) and Trish Dalton (Big Apple Film Festival Award winner for Best Short Documentary). The film spotlights several different players and coaches including 2 names who should be familiar to college basketball fans: Nick Richards (2017 McDonald’s All-American who now plays at Kentucky) and Mike Shaw (a former top-100 recruit who played at both Illinois/Bradley). HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Ms. Dalton about how the film came about, Nick’s journey to Lexington, and Mike’s difficult adjustment to life after college.
How did the project originate, and how did you choose Nick Richards/Mike Shaw as your basketball subjects? Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and I typically cover human-rights stories, and when Steve Stoute of United Masters approached us about the inequality in college sports in the U.S., we thought that it was glaringly unfair and an important issue to shed light on. We felt what was missing from the conversation was the reality of the experience for the players on a personal level. We wanted to tell the stories of players at different stages of their collegiate athletic careers. We chose Nick because he was a top recruit who was just entering college, and we chose Mike because he was graduating.
The anonymous shoe company representative who shares all the dirt on the industry is arguably the star of the show: I knew that shoe companies recruited players as young as 12-13 in the biggest basketball hotbeds, but are they really in every single city trying to find the next Michael Jordan/LeBron James? We were also surprised to learn how many scouts were out there: it seems pretty pervasive. Even at small schools, where we filmed in Illinois and Indiana coaches were connected to scouts.
The shoe company representative also stated that a high school player wearing a company’s gear on Instagram is more important than the 6th or 7th-best guy on an NBA team wearing it: how has social media changed the sports industry, and were 2 million viewers wrong to check out Zion Williamson’s video based on his outstanding freshman year as a Duke basketball player? Social media definitely seems to play a big role in player popularity. I am unsure how viewers would be wrong to follow them. We were just trying to show that these guys have pretty big followings. Zion’s popularity kind of speaks for itself.
The representative said that the McDonald’s All-American Game (in which Nick participated) is not only about the player getting a ton of exposure but also about shoe companies getting to scout a player’s friends/family: if Nick can score 20 PPG then will people really care if he has a helicopter mom or a friend who has been in trouble with the law? The NCAA rules can seriously affect college athletes’, because the rules are quite serious.
March Madness bring is $1 billion in TV advertising and in 2016 UCLA signed a$280 million deal with Under Armour: how high can the dollars go, and where should they be distributed? That is a complicated question. Personally, I think that if your coach makes more than $10 million/year then there is plenty of money to go around.
1 of the images that stuck with me the most was the shot of Nick practicing alone on the court while a group of 20-30 African-American kids are just sitting on a stage in the background and watching him: what message do you want the audience to take from that clip? We wanted to show where Nick practiced and what that looked like. Those students were there to watch the practice and I think their enthusiasm speaks for itself. The film explores how we can make the system more fair to allow players to pursue their dream. I think that the business of college sports is where the NCAA/schools bring in so much money via TV/brands. If you look at any other corporation in America it is hard to find a situation where you make money, while your employees work 40-50 hours/week, in exchange for an education, and barely have time to attend class.
Nick moved from Jamaica to the U.S. at age 14 with his entire family because they all wanted him to make it to the NBA: is such a situation the exception to the rule or the start of a global trend? There seem to be a handful of basketball players that come to the U.S. every year to play, but I am unsure how many of their families are able to join them. We found that many of the players (whether they lived here or abroad) families were living below the poverty line, so there was pressure on them to make it to the NBA to eventually get paid. Players are scouted all over the world and if they are at a good high school, they are already on the NBA‘s radar. Nick is lucky because he had some family here already.
Nick is concerned about wearing Nike sneakers at an event because he is used to wearing Under Armour: why do high school kids care so much about what sneakers they are wearing? They sure seem to care about their brands! When I was in high school I cared a lot more about brands, too: peer pressure is strong at that age.
Nick says that Kentucky is his dream school because blue is his favorite color and the Wildcats send 2-3 guys to the NBA each year, while his mom likes Kentucky more than Arizona because it is closer to their home in New York: what are the biggest factors that high school athletes consider when choosing a college? I am sure that it is a range of answers depending on who you ask, but like Nick, many of the players we asked chose schools they had heard of and their parents often encouraged them to stay close to home. I think they look for a school that sends its players to the NBA. It depends on who is scouting the player: I assume that Kentucky was scouting Nick more than other schools were. All of the guys we talked to had shoeboxes full of offers, but weren’t familiar with all the schools. Most young basketball players have not traveled outside their community so they do not know what different college campuses are like and some do not want to be away from their friends/family at such a young age.
After Mike injures his back 1 doctor tells him that he might not walk again if he keeps playing while another doctor is shocked by the physical degeneration of a 23-year old who might end up in a wheelchair/walker: how do athletes balance their love of the game with their love of a scholarship with their love of walking? In Mike’s case the injury came as a shock. I think that many players hope they will avoid injury: when you are younger you are a bit in denial because you feel invincible. There are stats on getting a serious injury if you end up playing a pro sport: I think it’s is near 100%. The players are afraid to complain because that is not part of the culture: it is not encouraged to speak out against that.
Mike decided to go to college at Illinois (since Coach Bruce Weber had been recruiting him since the 8th grade), but after Weber was fired he decided to transfer to Bradley and sit out 1 year per NCAA rules: should coaches should be allowed to recruit middle schoolers, and are the transfer rules fair? The transfer rules are very limiting to players, especially in a case like Mike’s, because of the restrictions on changing schools, while coaches are allowed to go from school to school. That seems unfair to me: many players choose a school due to the coach/opportunity and Mike gave up all of his other opportunities and then lost the coach who had been recruiting him since he was 12 years old. Most new coaches bring in the players who they have been scouting for the past several years.
Mike says that having a degree plays a role in his success yet the majority of his belongings he owns when moving out of his apartment is a huge plastic bag full of sneakers: which do you truly believe he values more? Mike certainly loved basketball and always assumed that he would play professionally: that seemed to be his primary goal. I think it speaks for itself: he was told he would be 1 of the best (which he was), and it is hard to let go of that. He did stay in school and make it a priority to finish getting his degree, but after that he still had to sort things out. It takes other efforts/connections to make your degree work for you. Taking a job at Enterprise is not why he went to college and worked really hard for 4 years: a lot of the players feel really disillusioned by their post-graduate options.
His grandfather states that college athletics is akin to slavery (since you have to do what the coach says, you cannot go home for the holidays, etc.): do you agree, and what role does race play in the equation? I think there are similarities, for example, the rules prevent the players from receiving any kind of income off their name/image/likeness, or share in any of the revenues from broadcasters, brands, and ticket sales. I hope that the film speaks to that: players are told it is their ticket out of poverty, but then they often end up back in poverty, and suffering from injuries.
His brother tries to convince him to come work with him at Enterprise due to the company car/benefits, but he remains unemployed 1 year after graduating/spent some time in a psychiatric hospital/is walking around picking up trash: he says that he never expected he would be here, but where should most former college athletes expect to be 1 year after graduating? I think that they expect to achieve the glory that playing sports had promised them. In Mike’s case, he thought that he would achieve great things from basketball, and when he had to face a different reality he also faced a lot of disappointment. The difference is that athletes go from having a celebrity status on campus to facing the reality that it was not his ticket to the NBA and that he has to create a new life that does not touch upon sports. I have heard that athletes suffer 2 deaths: the end of their life but also the end of their playing career. Mike is still struggling to navigate his new identity after being an athlete for so long. A lot of players suffer depression: I think that it is a bit criminal. There are NCAA ads in their neighborhoods suggesting that getting into college will be great, but it is not the reality is very different.
Any final message to the viewers? I hope that viewers can connect with the players and that as a society we can provide them with help. Any organization that treats their workers unfairly should be forced to make a more equitable system. It is time for a change and we should support players who stand up for themselves. Right now there is a popular opinion that college athletes get a free education and will be just fine, but the player are paying a high price.
