Silver Wants to Subsidize Student-Athletes

Silver said he could envision the league potentially contributing to make up the actual cost of attendance gap above what the players get for their scholarships and getting involved in a more complete insurance plan, which could include total disability insurance should an athlete return to school and injure himself so badly he could never play again. Currently, the NCAA provides only a preferred loan rate to elite athletes whom it deems to be potential high draft picks.

“It does, in my mind, need to be a three-way conversation,” Silver said. “You heard college administrators at press conferences around the [NCAA] tournament say that it’s the NBA’s problem or the union is putting up resistance. It’s a more complex problem than that.”

via Darren Rovell of ESPN