Taking the phrase "diaper dandy" too far

Okay, so I'm dutifully making my weekly journey through the current issue of Sports Illustrated, when I come upon this article. It's a rather standard feature/human interest piece on twin brothers Brook and Robin Lopez, who are both 7 feet tall and are currently sophomore members of the Stanford basketball team. The article in and of itself wasn't particularly noteworthy for me, save one passing reference to an SI piece on high school recruiting back in 1990. The article referenced their older brother, who was in 8th grade, and also alluded to the fact that the twins, who were 21 months old at the time were already drawing attention from recruiters because they were projected to reach 7 feet tall.

Yes, that's correct - 21 month old kids were attracting attention from recruiters - in 1990. I don't know about you, but my own personal skill set at a few months prior to my 2nd birthday didn't offer much indication into my potential as a basketball player. I had mastered walking, and was only beginning to master talking in words that weren't utter gibberish to anyone but me. I might have been able to palm a Nerf basketball, but only by squeezing the thing into oblivion. Oh, you know, I might have been able to feed myself to some degree back then - a very useful skill for a future basketball player.

Now, I understand that the reality was that, since the boys projected to be 7 feet tall, these recruiters weren't likely concerned about anything else at that point, especially given that they came from athletic roots. And the simple fact of the matter is that there are some 7 footers in the NBA today who I sometimes doubt have total command of the 21 month old skill set I just described. But the very simple fact that anyone felt they needed to keep an eye on these kids by the age of 21 months is quite disturbing to me. I know Dick Vitale (shudder) has been using the term "diaper dandy" for years on years to describe excellent freshman basketball players, but I'd really never read of anyone taking the term so literally before.

A few years back, 2 D-III All-American soccer players from Messiah (one male, one female, of course) dated, got engaged, and then were married. I remember suggesting at the time on a D3 soccer fan forum that the Messiah coaching staff had approached the couple about signing an agreement binding their children, of either gender, to play soccer at Messiah. This was, of course, totally tongue and cheek, and meant solely for humor's sake. However, knowing that almost 2 decades ago there were recruiters putting 21 month old kids on their radar due to height projections, such a scenario doesn't seem nearly as far-fetched as it did when I made the comment.

I mean, seriously, how far are we (or might we already be there already) from the day where kids are being basically recruited in utero based on genetics? I can just see recruiters (well, maybe not official recruiters, NCAA regulations being as they are) standing outside delivery rooms with school logo onesies to bestow upon the minutes old child, just hoping to get that early foot in the door. I have visions of parents bringing their newborn home to find their nursery repainted in Duke royal or Carolina powder blue. Heck, why wait until the child has already been conceived to start the process? Let's start matching couples and genetically engineering our athletes.

Okay, so all of that is an over-dramatization of the issue, but I guarantee you that anyone with an ear to the recruiting scene will tell you openly that, regardless of what the NCAA regulations are, kids are being recruited earlier and earlier. At what point do we say "Enough?" Clearly, whatever that point is, we haven't found yet, and I think that's sad. Kids, no matter how talented in whatever arena, deserve time to be just that - kids. The sooner we suck them into this athletic sub-culture (one that, by the way, pretty much everyone involved assigns far too much importance to), the quicker we take that away.