This time a year ago, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff were favorites to haul in then-2020 guard R.J. Hampton. Three months ago, though, the five-star opted to spend his first year out of high school doing something other than fattening the wallets of a small group of disgustingly greedy old men — aka, the NCAA.
By reclassing in order to shorten his path to the NBA while also benefitting right away from sizeable contracts with a club in New Zealand and a shoe company out of China called Li-Ning — promising a record-setting payout should he become a 2020 lottery pick — Hampton publicly scoffed at the NCAA’s attempt to bamboozle him into settling for the following:
No pay.