“Bags of Cash”: Cavaliers Star Kevin Love Reveals Corruption Behind College Recruiting

When a top prospect leaves high school, they are faced with a tough choice when choosing a college since there are multiple offers on the table. According to Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love, colleges often go the extra mile to convince these student-athletes, even if it is blatantly wrong.

During his interview with Graham Bensinger, Love spoke about how the college recruiting process was corrupt. He said, “The college recruiting process is just continuing to get worse. Players parents, handlers, and everybody is wanting something in return. That opens up a whole other can of worms when it comes to college players getting paid and the NCAA using their likeness.”

Coming out of high school, Love was a top-ranked prospect. He rejected offers from Arizona, UNC, and Oregon to join UCLA. They were one of the best teams in the country and had just lost the National Semifinal. So as he entered college, he had a first-hand experience of how the recruiting process works.

At UCLA, Love played one season, where he was teammates with Russell Westbrook. They also had Darren Collison and Luc Mbah a Moute on the team. But despite this team, they were once again unable to go past the National Semifinal and fell to the Memphis Tigers.

Kevin Love talks about how this corruption affects the young athletes

Love spoke about how when a young athlete gets certain such offers, he is under a lot of stress, especially when it comes to lower-income families.

Love said, “Bags of cash or wardrobe of clothes. There are so many things that are scary and wrong, and you don’t really know how to understand it. You’ve never seen this type of stuff before, yet you are having to deal with it. It adds so much stress and anxiety, and you are just trying to get to your goal. You put a kid in a really tough place, and I think it’s a learning experience, but you take a player, take that individual away, there is a lot of greed on every side.”

This sheds light on how colleges are using these athletes as a business asset. The primary goal of the NCAA is to provide students an environment to develop before they try to enter the NBA. Last year, the NCAA finally allowed athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness, something that seems basic but was never allowed.

Many NBA stars including LeBron James have called out the NCAA for its corruption. There was a scandal too back in the 2017-18 season where officials were caught for multiple offenses. Despite these glaring problems, it remains to be seen how change will be brought in this field.

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