Clarkson and Gilas’ agony and ecstasy

No doubt Jordan Clarkson felt the same agony and ecstasy Gilas Pilipinas went through at the Fiba Asia Championship in Changsha City, China.

Along with an entire nation, the Filipino-American guard for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, currently at training camp with his team in Hawaii, hoped for the best for the national squad in its finals match with mighty China.

But at the end of the day the host and its great wall of four behemoths outmuscled our team to make it outright to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next year. Now, Gilas has to go through the backdoor to qualify.

Should we make it to the Brazil Games, the 23-year old Clarkson whose mom Annette is from Angeles City, would be free from Laker commitments in the NBA offseason. That allows him to play under the Philippine flag, with Fiba’s imprimatur, as he had committed earlier.

While Gilas strove for a dream finish against the Chinese, Clarkson himself was in the thick of a derby for a starting guard position with the Lakers for the 2015-2016 NBA season. 

Including super nova Kobe Bryant, the Lakers have six players who can handle the number one and number two guard positions.   

A Los Angeles Times blog from Honolulu says Clarkson and the rest of Clarkson’s competitors are rookie D’Angelo Russell Williams, Michael Frazier and Brazilian player Marcelo Huertas.

* * *

A lower court ruling that said college athletes could be paid for playing games that generate billions of dollars in the United States has been overturned in federal appeals court.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said no to providing student athletes as much as $5,000 a year in deferred compensation as their share of school earnings for games they play, specially football and basketball that generate billions of dollars.

However, the federal appeals court said yes to scholarships that cover the full cost of school attendance, including tuition, room and board, books and fees for college athletes.

The federal bench’s no money decision was what college officials had insisted to preserve the amateur nature of collegiate sports competition.

Had the federal appeals court agreed with the lower court ruling, it would have opened  a new chapter in the academic lives of student athletes worldwide who play collegiate sports solely for scholarships and not for a share of their schools’ dividends from sporting events they take part in.

The lower court ruling upended by the federal appeals court was sparked by an anti-trust lawsuit brought by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon.

The former college star contended athletes should get a share of the windfall the NCAA gets through television broadcasts and video games bearing the names, images and likenesses of players.