Slave market or a little about the draft

Let's start with the visualization:

Imagine a situation where a large number of people compete in strength, endurance, athleticism, and reaction. Their physical data is under constant investigation. Measured: height, arm span, weight, health examined. Young, large, healthy and athletic are most valued. All of this is exposed to a public demonstration. Furthermore, exact people choose the best of the sportsmen in order to grow their talents and get big on them later. By the way, they choose the best by random draw.

I think that many of you have already come to the conclusion that this time we will talk about the draft procedure in sports, which describes the previous part of the text.

The concept

Draft in sports (draft) is the procedure for professional teams to select players who do not have an active contract with any team in the league. When a team selects a player, it receives exclusive rights to sign a professional contract with this player, and no other team in the league can compete with it in this matter.

Depending on the sport, players can come from sport teams of colleges, secondary schools, youth teams or teams from other countries, as well as from special development leagues of players using the example of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Draft is held every year at the end of the competition season. At the draft ceremony, the clubs alternately choose the athletes who have proven their best during the previous sport season. Also, an important role in the athlete's subsequent choice is played by draft combine events, due to which each participant can rise higher in a future choice on a talent attraction.

The order in which clubs select players during the draft is based on how the club performed last season. The worse the result in the win / lose graph, the higher the chance of getting the best “newcomer” to the club structure.

What is a draft for?

This mechanism is designed to equalize the chances of clubs to receive future sports stars and to destroy the connection between the club’s victories and its big wallet. In the case of the draft, money does not solve anything. Clubs sign contracts for "newcomers" on absolutely standard conditions for all first-year players. Draft can change the history of “loser clubs” and lead them to the championship, sports greatness, to which every professional athlete aspires.

In the USA and Canada there is a clear vertical of sports, which is integrated into the education system: schools - universities - professional sports. Different sports have their own nuances, but in general, the scheme is simple. After school, the best players are offered sports scholarships at universities to participate in competitions supervised by the Student Sports Association (NCAA), and from there professional leagues will draft students - NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL.

History of creation

In 1936, football (talking about American football) teams first began to invite university graduates. But even earlier, in 1921, the draft system was used in baseball. The appearance of this system in hockey dates back to 1963, and in basketball - in 1947.

Types of draft

The admission draft is the main form that helps to distribute athletes who have the opportunity to play in the league by teams;
Expansion draft - the new team selects players for itself from among other active league clubs (for example: the Vegas NHL team);
Reduction draft - the remaining teams in the league select players from the team that has just left the league.

Legal Aspects

What rights and freedoms are violated by draft mechanisms?

The age threshold still does not allow people to go for a draft right from school, violating the rights of adult players to find jobs (until 2005 it was possible to get into the NBA immediately after graduation, and Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady and LeBron James did so);
Young players are underpaid. Due to restrictions on the newbie contract on the amount of the contract, teams can get a few penny contracts for the club with huge financial and competitive potential, which violates the rights of players in terms of fair and proportionate remuneration;
Players are chosen as a car in a store or puppies in the bird market, which violates the right of players to choose a job place (although formally players can influence their choice in the draft by expressing their public position, by participating in / not participating in closed training with challenging teams and by providing / not providing the results of medical examinations to teams interested in their services);
Players for several years are not entitled to transfer to other teams, since the rights to them after the draft for several years are assigned to the player’s first club, which runs counter to the concept of freedom of contract and the right to choose a job.

Is it worth saying that the club, after choosing a player in the draft, exercises control over the entire life of the player? Club has the right to charge them and punish due to discipline:

For malnutrition;
Inappropriate behavior in free time from training and games;
For giving inconsistent interviews;
For violation of the regime of rest and training;
Deprive payments for a certain number of fouls, game disqualifications;
For being late or refusing to participate in training camps;
For expressing his civil and / or political position (example: the act of an American football player, Colin Copernicus, who knelt on one knee during the performance of the US anthem because of police brutality towards African Americans).

I think that what is written will be enough to understand how difficult it is today to be an athlete and remain, at the same time, a “free” person. Blood and sweat paved the way to sporting greatness. It is worth remembering this before you judge each player for every expensive thing he or she bought...

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Sources: atlantablackstar.com ; www.vox.com ; vespo.com.ua ; sportandbets.com ; meduza.io ; https://bleacherreport.com