Ryen Russillo speaks on young athletes and success (video)

By Ethan Finkelstein | Apr 14, 2015

Ryen Russillo filled in for Keith Olbermann on the latter’s television program and delivered a beautiful essay on young athletes and the public notion of their decisions.

There is something to be said about young athletes in this country. An inherent bias seems to exists with them. It is not that they are not viewed as talented, but rather as immature, or not ready. Specifically within the professional basketball and football realms, there appears to be the notion that individuals who forgo the remainder of their higher education in exchange for early eligibility are in the wrong.

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This same conventional wisdom is championed by several pundits and fans alike. However, Ryen Russillo, co-host of ESPN’s SVP and Russillo, has made it quite clear that he does not partake in this shared skepticism. While filling in for host Keith Olbermann, Russillo delivered a nuanced critique that challenged the consensus of how we view younger athletes, particularly in the aforementioned sports, as a whole.

In the accompanying video, Russillo explains why the common approach we take towards players like Kevin Garnett, or Maurice Clarett, is overly protective and quite presumptuous in nature.

Frankly, he has a point. As much as the public tries to “protect” players by pressuring them to pursue their academic endeavors in full, is it really all that fair to proclaim when someone else is ready? How can one speak on the behalf of another, especially if said critic has zero expertise or even personal experience on the matter?

Yet it still happens, and quite a lot.

If an athlete is ready to compete at the highest level, why prolong it? The differences in success or failure rate could very well be negligible at best between declaring after one year, or staying for four.

Are there plenty of cases where a four year college athlete benefited from their time in school? Absolutely. But there are several examples of just the opposite. The aforementioned Garnett is a future hall of famer. So is five time NBA champion and one time MVP Kobe Bryant, who currently sits at third on the all time points scored list.

Look, higher education should never be ruled out of the equation as a back up plan. In fact, in a lot of cases, it is the much safer option. But who are we to say when a player is, or is not ready? And why does no one ever get on Jordan Spieth’s case for leaving the University of Texas after one year? What about Tiger Woods? Did the world just suddenly decide to care about him leaving Stanford (a nearly consensus top 10 school) following his freshman campaign?

There is most certainly an inherent jealousy that rings true in most of us. Why should those people achieve the highest level of accomplishment at such a precocious stage in their lives? This insecurity we project is understandable. Most of us will likely never live up to our own lofty expectations.

It still does not excuse the efforts to suppress talent until we, as a whole, feel they have “earned the right” to test themselves at the professional realm.

Yes, sports are entertainment, and the athletes are the star performers. However, they are still just people, like you or me. Ultimately, they will know a lot more about their own capabilities than some critics sitting at home behind a computer, or analysts barking away on air. Whether they chose educational advancement, and by proxy, a prolonging of their professional sports careers, or simply decide to declare themselves eligible after a year or two; that call is ultimately theirs.

And that is fine. They do not owe us a thing. To expect anything otherwise, is simply delusional.

H/T Keith Olbermann via YouTube