For most college athletes, dreams of playing in the NBA are nothing more than a fantasy — most will never be multi-millionaires, many will never even make a living playing ball.

-It is a harsh reality — to go from being the giant-sized darling of your college to being a one-inch footnote in a media guide — but that’s life. The dream ends; you grab your degree and you run screaming toward the exit — there should be no lingering here, in this place of despair, this abattoir of ambition.

It’s time to face the fact: Sac State has never had a basketball player go to the NBA.

While last year’s hoops squad was plenty talented, after graduation they’ll probably never be heard from again. This is not a university that creates and fosters talent; it is a university where talent goes to die. Those involved in its basketball program, however, are told differently by their deceiving entourage.

Athletes that were the pick of the litter at their high school or junior college were loved and cherished. They’re told that through sheer willpower worlds can be moved, that the depth of the ocean is insignificant in comparison to the human desire to achieve.-

They’re told that anyone, if they work hard enough, can play in the NBA.-

For most college athletes, this is a bold-faced lie, especially if they’re an athlete at Sac State.-

For someone like LeBron James, however, those promises of success are fact. James will more than likely be the No. 1 draft pick for the NBA in 2003, and if he’s smart, he’ll skip college entirely.

Why, after all, would someone not want to become a multi-millionaire with his own brand of shoes? Why would someone want to punish themselves with four years (or more) of balancing athletics with midterms and finals, piling stress on top of suffering?-

Chicago Bulls rookie point guard Jay Williams (previously starting) could have entered the draft after leading Duke University to a NCAA championship his sophomore year (2001) in college, but he didn’t.

He got his walking papers a full year early from Duke — known for their tough academic standards — and entered the draft in 2002, degree in sociology and all.-

Williams’ critics claim his degree was fictional — achieved through Duke’s lowered academic standards for athletes and easy-as-pie home-study programs. Whether or not Williams’ degree was earned isn’t the issue.

No matter how it’s sliced, a resume sporting the word “Duke” is a lot more impressive than, “I didn’t even graduate from Sac State.”-

Five players on Sac State’s men’s basketball team were sidelined this season due to academic ineligibility, and if they don’t shape up, they could be part of the growing number of athletes who fail to graduate from college. It’s called “missing the forest because of the trees,” the idea that university sports can bring glitter and fame is often myopic.-

What many of these athletes are forgetting is the reason they trained so hard. After four years of hitting the books, it’s easy to forget what makes the world go round: The big green, the scrilla — money.

Students attend college, first and foremost, because they want to get jobs — personal erudition and enlightenment are secondary goals.-

The reality is athletes like James don’t need college, they can make money right from the get-go with big shoe deals and fat NBA paychecks — for nearly everyone else, sadly, basketball isn’t enough. An education is critical.-

And basketball can pay the way through college. With the average Sac State student in debt up to their necks at around $20,000, getting a free ride through any university is the sweetest deal under the sun.

Graduate within four years and there’s no agonizing student loans to worry about, no gouging interest rates. Wasting those four years (or five with a redshirt) by concentrating entirely on athletics and neglecting academics is like returning to the day of high school graduation — four years older and athletically ineligible.-

Sac State’s athletes should worry less about building a program that’s nationally recognized and more about getting their degrees. They need to worry about themselves first and athletics second.

Find an academic passion or pick a lucrative major, because basketball rarely pays the way in life. Joining the ranks of the NBA, and even the CBA, is a fantasy.

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