Ex-NBA star claims there's 'residue of slavery' in pro sports leagues that have salary caps

Former NBA star Jalen Rose suggested in a recent podcast there was a racial aspect behind certain professional sports leagues having a salary cap.

Rose appeared on a live edition of the "Joe and Jada Unfiltered" podcast last week and said the "only sports that have salary caps are Black led" as he talked about his problem with the system. He named leagues like MLB, NASCAR, golf and tennis that do not have salary caps. Though he failed to mention that the NHL has a salary cap as roughly two dozen NHL players are Black.

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"The second thing is they have no after high school restrictions," he continued. "So, that’s a residue of slavery because we’re going to get money off of you for multiple years for free. There’s no way around it. So, what happened in the game, it became so obvious because of social media and because of information, it’s like ‘We’re making a billion dollars, we gotta pay them something.' That’s how it ended up happening."

The member of the "Fab Five" Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball team added he was "happy" to see players get paid off of their name, image and likeness, but, "if you notice, you still got to pay the system," he said.

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Rose said another issue of his was eligibility for the pros. He noted that in the NFL, players usually have to be three years removed from high school to enter the NFL. He pointed to all-time greats in the NBA like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett have been productive coming out of high school. He didn’t mention the careers of Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, DeSagna Diop and countless others who fizzled out without playing college basketball.

In baseball, high school players come out and get drafted but start their careers in the minor leagues.

MLB is expected to have a fight about whether to have a salary cap in the next round of collective bargaining talks. The league appears to be ready to push for one, while the players have been opposed.

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