College Athletes are still in College

One thing everyone forgets about college athletes is that they are still in college. They still have classes to attend and they still have grades they need to keep up. Not because they need a certain gpa to be eligible to play but because after they graduate they will more than likely have a normal life that they will have to get used to. Being a star basketball player isn’t going to pay the bills for the rest of your life.

That’s why I was really happy to see that Trent Johnson, Stanford basketball coach, suspend Brook Lopez for missing two days worth of classes and one practice. He will miss the first 9 games of the season. Last year, Lopez started in 18 of the Cardinals games and played in 26. He is an asset to the team and it must have taken a lot of consideration on the coach’s behalf to have suspended this player.

Lopez who is already on academic probation from the team was suspended Friday. Even though he was already ineligible for the start of the season his punishment is a lot greater now. In the end, Johnson was looking in the best interest of Lopez as well the team. A lot of the time, I think that coaches only care about winning but I feel that Johnson realizes that eventually Lopez has to plan for the rest of his life if the NBA doesn’t work out. I feel that other coaches need to care about their college players the way that Trent Johnson does.