The big losers in the open transfer market are the JC players. There used to be an incentive to take a JC as they could play right away. That's now lost as anyone can play right away. Coaches will now pick a D1 player over a JC player. Watch "Last Chance" on Netflix to see a great documentary on what it means to JC players to get a scholarship.
I never watched Hoop Dreams until a month ago, and was appalled the rural Missouri JC the "underdog" CPL kid Arthur Agee had to head to. Of course St. Joe's Academy/ cartoon character coach Gene Pingatore and a lot of other things in that documentary were more harsh than the JC.
Of course Arthur Agee had a chance to get a two year education and a full "ride" so that was good, but living in a windowless one story plywood house in the middle of nowhere looked pretty bleak.
I knew a few very skilled MN HS kids playing at the YMCA over the years that were academic risks that could not get admitted anywhere good, with few BB options. The no scholarship JC level (Minnesota) is even crazier. I used to know a couple of the coaches and see games at the Mpls CC years back under Jay P (visiting coaches pass) That is one crazy desperate approach to basketball and life in my view.
My 7 month stay in Chicago was just a couple of years after this all went down, and Hoop Dreams just reminded me of how strange and dysfunctional Chicago and the State of Illinois are in general. I still to this day am not sure if I wished I had stayed there or not. Maybe I'd have a nice penthouse and boat in the marina off of LSD, who knows!
I did not even know at the time that Cabrini Green, where Gates Jr. lived, was just a couple of miles or less west of Lincoln Park West (by Zoo) where I was, a glittering, high dollar professional area. ( I was a low rent squatter by the park/ zoo)
I tend to think urban, near the lake Chicago is a glorious place to live if you make 150K plus a year otherwise it can be sort of miserable.
Gold Coast or Calumet City?