We will hear in the next few days claims that this is another step towards spoiling the purity of the women’s game, making it more like the men’s. We will hear the “women should complete their education” argument. Do people object to this move out of some idea of the purity of the women’s game, or because they maintain the paternalistic (or maternalistic) myth that women’s college basketball players are “Our Girls” and should not do anything to spoil our four years with them?
Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but at the end of the day, nobody except Epiphanny Prince should have anything to say about how to strike the balance between a Rutgers education and a considerable paycheck this year. Former WNBA President Val Ackerman got it exactly right when she told the New York Times that the education argument is “overly paternalistic.” She continued, “I don’t think it’s [our] job to dictate what constitutes a good education. She has three years, she’s close to graduation and, frankly, going to Europe is an enormous education.”
Heck, more than a third of all college students leave campus for at least a semester to study abroad. Prince has simply opted out of the exorbitant “study abroad” costs; she will actually get paid to visit a foreign land. If, in fact, there is any “student” left in this NCAA “student-athlete”, Prince, a Criminal Justice major according to the Rutgers Athletic Department spokeswoman Stacey Brann, may be getting a better education by learning to live on her own in a foreign country than she would have studying, say “Interpersonal Communication Processes” back in New Jersey.
Reality, plain and simple: In Europe, women can make a very good living playing basketball. It has been reported that Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird each make more than half a million dollars for a six-month season in Moscow, before returning to a four-month WNBA season where the maximum anyone can earn is a base salary of $99,500 (six years in league, signing with previous team) with possibly a little extra in bonuses ($10,500 for WNBA champions, $15,000 for MVP, $5000 for “XYZ-of-the-year). Rookies make the grand sum of $31,400 in the "W."
Keep in mind that playing in Europe it is a pretty darn good job for female athletes in their twenties and thirties. How many readers of this column would like to make half a mil playing a game? Even the WNBA salaries, though paltry compared to the men's take-home, are not that bad, were you to annualize them. (My 23-year-old is not making that kind of money in the private sector, even with a Brown University degree under her belt.)
My advice to the hand-wringers is this: Get over it. Having spoken one-on-one to Epiphanny Prince on two occasions, my impression is that she is a smart and thoughtful young woman, as well as a phenomenally talented basketball player. She is more than capable of weighing the pros and cons of leaving college basketball before her eligibility is over. It could be that some part of Prince’s motivation was that the young and undisciplined Scarlet Knights are likely to struggle through another difficult season next year -- an outcome unlikely to add much to her basketball resume. Moreover, unlike most of her contemporaries in the men’s game who depart the college scene "prematurely," I'm willing to bet Prince will find a way to complete her degree --at Rutgers or elsewhere.
All Prince has done is to make an economic choice that men’s players have routinely made for years. Why should we see this as a catastrophe? Sure, many will see this as the first of what may become many such decisions. Prince's move may indeed presage the end of the traditional four-year collegiate stint for star women’s players. But truth be told, Prince is not even the first to leave early. Schuye LaRue left Virginia after her sophomore year, and was actually drafted in 2003, but did not have the talent of temperament to gain a roster spot in the WNBA. And, albeit after fulfilling all graduation requirements, 2008's WNBA Player- and Rookie-of -the-Year Candace Parker left Tennessee for the WNBA with a year of eligibility remaining. Prince will be the first to leave before graduation and actually be likely to "stick" in the league.
So?
This is America. Like it or not, we tend to measure success by the money a person makes. And while Prince may not immediately strike the half-mil "jackpot" enjoyed by Bird, Taurasi, Lauren Jackson, and others who are already enjoy WNBA All-Star status and are playing for well-funded Russian franchises, Prince is certain to make a bunch in Europe. She will also acquire the means to help her family, who still live in a housing project in Brooklyn, live a more secure life.
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| Prince's scoring (19.5 points per game last season) and defense (87 steals -- more than twice as many as her next-highest teammate) will be sorely missed at Rutgers next season. They will also help her pull down a good salary, if not top dollar, in Europe. |
C. Vivian Stringer and her teammates will miss their leading scorer greatly. Prince averaged 19.5 points per game last season, to which she added solid defense, including 87 steals -- more than twice as many snatches as her next-closest teammate, Khadijah Rushdan.) But Stringer, more than many coaches, “gets it,” and fully supports her star’s decision. We should all join in wishing Ms. Prince great success in Europe, and welcome her home to the WNBA in 2010.