In this league, it's more than just basketball

Richard Crabtree used a comparison yesterday to explain to roughly 80 sleepy high school basketball players why they had to be in a gym at 9 a.m. on a beautiful summer day.

"School is like your left hand," said Mr. Crabtree, the director of Merrill Lynch's Annapolis office.

"If you have a good left hand, you can go either way," he said. "It gives you options, just like school does."

The players are part of the Merrill Lynch Summer Basketball League.

Mr. Crabtree said the reason he founded the league was to help student-athletes realize those options. The miniscule possibility of...