Jim Boeheim really does not want university basketball players to be paid. LeBron James makes fun of him.

These are dark and strange days for college basketball. A year ago, an FBI investigation revealed the worst kept secret in the sport: the black market that exists for recruits because of the obsolete rules of the NCAA relating to amateurism. This case was brought to court this month in Manhattan, with a verdict of guilty on Wednesday setting serious prison sentence before former Adidas executives and agency middlemen who were on trial.

Meanwhile, a new college basketball season will begin in just a few weeks. At Wednesday's ACC Press Day, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim had the idea to pay university players and tried to convince a former rookie who ended up become professional instead of respecting his commitment to Orange. No less than an authority that LeBron James has taken notice of.

LeBron James vs. Jim Boeheim went on Twitter

Let's start with Darius Bazley, the former five-star rookie who made it to Syracuse until he decided to go back on that commitment to joining the G-League. Bazley eventually reneged on this commitment, choosing instead to spend the whole year practicing draft NBA.

Bazley signed a contract with Klutch Sports, the agency best known for being led by his long-time friend, Rich Paul, of LeBron James. Klutch helped Bazley sign a New Balance approval agreement that will pay him a million dollars guaranteed and up to $ 14 million. When Boeheim was asked about Bazley during media day, he had this to say:

Bazley is, technically, a Klutch Sports customer, not LeBron himself. However, LeBron could not help but fight back:

Boeheim replied to James:

All this is very ridiculous, but congratulations Jim Boeheim for the tweet.

Boeheim on paid college basketball players: "they can keep their meal money"

In case you're wondering what Boeheim really feels about college players making money, he's tackling this problem again. Guess what! Jim Boeheim thinks that amateurism is a good thing and university basketball players do not deserve a salary.

Here is the complete quote, via Syracuse.com:

"I do not think we should ever compensate players. I think we can do everything we can for the players. The cost of participation is good. They now have more meals to keep their money. I think these are all good things and more of these things should have been done. But I do not think you can compensate the players. What is the salary? How many? Do you pay for football, men's basketball, women's basketball? We have an excellent lacrosse team, do we pay these guys?

"The payment error and all say exactly the same thing:" It's a billion dollar business. "No, that's not the case, there may be income coming in, but that goes to all the other sports, it's not just about playing basketball and we're keeping everything. it pays off for all the other sports, so at the end of the day I know that Syracuse is zero, there is nothing left in the sports department at the end of the year. pay no one.

"And everyone says," The coach does that and the players (do not do anything). "The player is 17. I have worked all my life.There are many 17 year olds who do not earn money.Most of them.These 17 year olds receive a $ 75,000 bursary, and they compare that to a coach who makes all that money, what's the comparison there, I'm an adult man, I've been working for 50 years, it's just not a comparison. It does not make sense – you might as well say that NBA players do not make enough money because their owner is worth $ 2 billion, so players should make more money. It makes no sense.

"I think we should do everything we can for the actors in the system. We improved it. We could bring parents to games. I think we could do it more easily. All we can do to prolong the education of the players, make sure it is paid. We keep our players up there at Christmas – send them home. Let them pay to go home several times. Why not? Why can not we do that? Why would not we do that? I think they do it for other fellows. I think that they can get transportation. Why do not we talk about that?

"And the images of the players, all right. There are a lot of traps for that, but go for it. If Tyus Battle can advertise in the city and make money, I'm 100% for that. It does not hurt anything. Let's do that. And if they want to put something in trust, that's good too. "

Boeheim has been in this curve for years. The fact that he is really willing to let athletes take advantage of their image is considered a major victory for the rights of players at this stage. Boeheim, 73, does not change his mind about it. Even though Boeheim wants you to believe that Syracuse has "zero" in the sports department, a lot of money flows into college sports.

This debate is going nowhere. There are still two trials in the FBI corruption case. The G-League is offering US $ 125,000 to elite high school players to avoid college education. The NBA plans to abolish its age limit in time for the 2022 draft. Meanwhile, a black market will exist as long as there is amateurism and people are now going into federal prisons for a long time.

There will always be public quarrels between people like Boeheim and people like LeBron. The NBA and the NCAA must understand this before more people end up in jail for breaking the outdated rules of college sport.