1ST STRING MAGAZINE

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Pay for play - high school kids can look to endorsements deals to get paid

Photo by Eric Taylor

You no longer have to make a professional team to get paid anymore if you are a talented high school basketball player.

Now you don't even have to go to college anymore to make the pro's in basketball.

High schoolers such as Oakland's Jaylen Lewis (#24) can fatten their pockets with contracts while still in high school.

Lewis (16) became the youngest basketball player to sign a professional contract in the US when he inked a multi year deal to play for the Overtime Elite, an Atlanta based team due to start play in 2021.

That's just two years older then Freddie Adu was when he signed to play soccer in the MLS.

College players are getting into the act as well.

No longer can universities control what an athlete can make while they command the billions generated by the sports industry.

Now kids can get paid above the table, not by the schools, but by any company looking to profit of the popularity of the athlete.

Will professionalism work with high school kids and college athletes. Time will tell. Paying kids at an early age has not broken soccer or tennis.

We are seeing the effect of why Europeans come over to the NBA and play so well and much of that is due to players signing pro deals at a young age and playing in the European leagues.

Something had to change. College sports were making too much money while sweating kids over tattoos and clothes.