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Friday, August 1, 2008
Across the Pond and Back Again
By: Liam McHugh
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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Making the case for high school hoopsters to do a bit of travel
Ever talk to a European?
As comedian Greg Giraldo would say, "Sometimes you have no choice... you know, maybe you're learning to ski."
Regardless, Europeans will tell you that autumn is a gorgeous time - the steamy temps subside, the breeze picks up, and there's a refreshing lack of all those Dreadful Americans.
This fall, however, they're dealing with one more Yank than expected.
Brandon Jennings, the top high school point guard in the country last year, is currently playing professionally across the pond for an Italian club.
The reason? He can't legally ply his trade stateside. This, despite the fact that at 18 years old, Jennings is old enough to smoke, vote, and ... wait for it ... die in the Iraq war. What a country!
Under the current NBA system, prodigies like Jennings can't jump from the preps to the pros until they are 19 years old and one year removed from their final year of high school.
It's a rule that will be enforced until after the 2010-2011 NBA season, when the league's collective bargaining agreement expires. And while commissioner David Stern may fancy himself basketball's benevolent despot, a man whose omnipotence is only matched by his omniscience. But this time the commish has got it all wrong. This rule is all at once grossly unfair to young ballers and a cancer to college hoops.
Sure, not everyone's ambition includes a P.H.D. from MIT, but generally speaking, college is a place where youths grow and learn and experience — it's not an eight-month athletic showcase. As a result of the one-and-done system, a flood of top freshmen, including USC's O.J. Mayo, UCLA's Kevin Love, and Kansas State's Michael Beasley, played just one year of college hoops before entering the 2008 NBA Draft.
So let me be the first to say congrats. If you bought one of their jerseys, it's already a throwback. Mayo, Love and Beasley were basically biding their time —floating through a year of college and making a mockery of the term student athlete in the process. But I don't blame the athletes. I can't. Their enormous hands are tied in the U.S.
Currently, Oklahoma high schools have four kids ranked among the top 100 high school basketball players in the country. Two of them —Putnam City’s Xavier Henry (#2 Rivals.com) and Bishop McGuinness’ Daniel Orton (#10 Rivals) — are professionals in the making. But neither can play for pay next year unless they follow Jennings' lead.
And while I know they won't (Xavier’s dad Carl says it’s “not an option”), part of me wishes they would. Just think, in 2010, a year richer (the exchange rate is enticing these days), Orton and Henry could then head off to the NBA. It's not that I'm a fan of Euro hoops, it's simply that the more young men who choose Euros over Campus Cash, the more likely the NBA will get together with the NCAA and tear down the current structure.
But this is reality. Jennings isn't setting any trends, and both Henry and Orton are planning on going to college.
“I'm looking to go for one year,” says Orton. “Maybe two, and then the NBA. That’s my dream.
“I would go pro out of high school,” says Henry. “I'm going to take the opportunity when it's there.”
Call me old fashioned, but when a kid commits to a university, that’s what it should be, a commitment. Let’s try a modicum of accountability.
Other sports require less. The NHL and Major League Baseball draft right out of high school. Soccer prodigy Freddy Adu turned pro at the tender age of 14.
Basketball desperately needs to find a middle ground, so here's my humble proposal:
1) High-schoolers should be able to enter the NBA draft directly after graduation.
2) If college is the choice, athletes should be required to attend school for a minimum of two years.
3) In the spring semester of the sophomore year, grades should be closely monitored. If the athlete fails to meet minimum standards, he/she should be held out of all postseason tournaments. No conference tourney, no NIT, no NCAA.
Is it a perfect solution? No. But it's got to be better than saying “so long” to a slew of college freshman, or ever worse, "arrivederci" to high-schoolers who high-tail it to Europe.
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