Kid drops out of high school to play pro ball

[angryfan]

sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/basketball/boys/news/story?id=4090570

OK, he's 17, going to play in Europe after forgoing his senior year in high school. Says people "look to college for more off the court stuff instead of hitting the gym and practicing".

Dude is one torn ligament away from being an after school special, I'm calling it right now.

[Bub (BLM)]

I too think it's a bad idea. Granted, when I was 17, if I had an offer to play professional ball and make some big dollars, I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same. Now as an adult, it's much easier to see the negatives of the seemingly golden opportunity. As angryfan said, one career-ending injury and this kid is in rough shape. If he's that good of a player, he could have easily gotten a scholarship to a top college and continued shooting towards his career and further his education.

[angryfan]

Apr 23, 2009 9:00:49 GMT -5 Bub (BLM) said:

I too think it's a bad idea. Granted, when I was 17, if I had an offer to play professional ball and make some big dollars, I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same. Now as an adult, it's much easier to see the negatives of the seemingly golden opportunity. As angryfan said, one career-ending injury and this kid is in rough shape. If he's that good of a player, he could have easily gotten a scholarship to a top college and continued shooting towards his career and further his education.

Thing is, it's not so much the not going to college thing, as that's almost commonplace. Why drop out of high school, though? Is senior year really that big a pain?

[blef]

A college education is nice to have, but I can kinda forgive someone for leaving college early to play pro ball.

This, though, is much worse in comparison. A high school education is a fundamental requirement for life. No matter how well he does in his pro career, abandoning that should always be viewed as a bad decision on his part and eclipse anything he does in his professional life. Because if that career ends prematurely........he's a high school dropout.

[Push R Truth]

Apr 23, 2009 8:49:43 GMT -5 angryfan said:

Dude is one torn ligament away from being an after school special, I'm calling it right now.

Exactly.


Also at 17, his body is still massively changing. He might grow 2 inches and get clumsy as all hell.

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

He's following the footsteps from Brandon Jennings last year. However, Jennings was a five year senior who failed the SAT's twice and began thinking pro ball even after taking the SAT's a third time. I don't believe he got the minimum score for Arizona to accept him so it was either Europe or NBDL. I think this is the first case of a player completely forgoing College in favor of the pros. Jennings signed a letter of intent to Arizona. Here's what Jennings had to say of his experience earlier this year.

Perhaps white sails will one day appear on the horizon behind Brandon Jennings, a flotilla of high school basketball stars trailing him to Europe eager for a payday. But Jennings does not want anyone to get shipwrecked overseas just because he made the trip.

He issued that warning this week from Italy, where he is playing for Lottomatica Virtus Roma, a top professional team. He fears that top high school players may be seduced by visions of instant riches, fame and success in Spain, France, Italy, Greece or some other destination.

“I’ve gotten paid on time once this year,” Jennings said in an e-mail message. “They treat me like I’m a little kid. They don’t see me as a man. If you get on a good team, you might not play a lot. Some nights you’ll play a lot; some nights you won’t play at all. That’s just how it is.”

Jennings, a 6-foot-2 point guard who was regarded as the nation’s best high school player at his position a year ago, signed a $1.2 million deal in salary and endorsements to head to Europe in August instead of staying in the United States to play college basketball. Some analysts suggested that other elite players would follow the same path because of the rules requiring prospects to be a year removed from high school before becoming eligible for the N.B.A. draft.

The deal for Jennings allowed his mother and his half brother to live with him in Italy, and he said it still made economic sense. Yet he said he wanted others to know about his experience.

“I don’t see too many kids doing it,” his e-mail message said. “It’s tough man, I’ll tell you that. It can break you.”

Lottomatica Virtus Roma officials did not respond to requests for comment submitted through Francesca Mei, the team’s media director.

Jennings does not resemble the pioneer some envisioned when he left for Europe as a dynamic player who could create his own shots and score 20 points or more a game. In Italy, he said, he has been stifled offensively. He is averaging 8 points a game.

“My role is to play D and take open shots — that’s it,” he said. “And I’ve accepted that role.”

He acknowledged that the journey had helped him mature, and he said the rigors of playing in Europe may benefit others.

An N.B.A. assistant coach who has been to Europe and has watched Jennings play said his potential draft standing had not been harmed. The coach requested anonymity because he was discussing a player currently ineligible for the draft.

“I think it is good for him,” he said. “He was getting a defensive component that he needed. If I was a scout and I needed a point guard, I would be extremely impressed with what he has done over there.”

Several of the top-rated players in the high school class of 2009 said they would not follow Jennings to Europe:

¶Derrick Favors, a 6-9 forward from South Atlanta High School in Georgia who is considered by some to be the nation’s top prospect, has announced he will sign with Georgia Tech this spring. “I’m definitely going to college,” he said.

¶DeMarcus Cousins, a 6-10 forward who plays for LeFlore Magnet High in Mobile, Ala., said he also would attend college. His father, Jessie Cousins, said the family had not had contact with European teams.

¶Renardo Sidney, a 6-10 forward at Fairfax High in Los Angeles, intends to play in college, said Harvey Kitani, his coach.

¶Lance Stephenson, a 6-5 guard at Abraham Lincoln High in Brooklyn, wants to play in college, according to his coach, Dwayne Morton.

¶And Xavier Henry, a 6-6 guard at Putnam City High in Oklahoma, has announced he will attend Memphis.

Bob Gibbons, a North Carolina-based recruiting analyst, said all of those players would be considered N.B.A. draft prospects this year were it not for the league’s eligibility requirements. That does not mean they should rush to audition for European teams, he said.

“Myself, among others, thought there would be a revolution and players going to Europe,” Gibbons said. “I’m not so sure now after what I have been hearing with Jennings and all the cultural obstacles there are.”

Michael Reddick, who coaches Favors at South Atlanta, described Europe as “a man’s league.”

“There are a lot of things you have to consider to do something like that,” Reddick said. “I played over there 12 years, and it is not easy.”

Paul Hewitt, the Georgia Tech coach, said high school players needed to understand the cultural differences, including language barriers, and the challenges of being homesick and of having to manage daily affairs. If a high school star does skip college for the pros in Europe, Hewitt said, he should negotiate for the team to pay for college in case of an injury or lack of development.

Sonny Vaccaro, the former sneaker company executive who brokered Jennings’s deals with Lottomatica and the sponsor Under Armour, said he had been in contact with high school players and their parents who were interested in Europe.

But Vaccaro said there had been a change from last summer, when he worked on the deals for Jennings. Economic conditions in Europe are just as difficult as they are in the United States, and he said he underestimated the emotional strength a player needed to compete overseas.

“A less-driven kid would have come home,” Vaccaro said. “They practice twice a day, and the Europeans play everybody. It is not like one of these silly college games where the same seven guys play every minute of every game. When it’s over, the fact he was able to handle it is going to be more landmark than him just going over there.”

Pete Babcock, the former general manager of the Atlanta Hawks and the Denver Nuggets, said high school players in the United States had grown up watching college basketball. Their dreams are to play for those programs, he said, not in obscurity in Europe.

“There is not going to be a mass exodus,” said Babcock, now a scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers. “I don’t see it happening.”

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/sports/basketball/24recruit.html?_r=1

[Loki]

In most European countries, professional soccer players barely make it through high-school, and often are "awarded" the degree just because they're soon-to-be professional players.

Actually, most of them have a middle-school education, and a mediocre one too...

So I don't really see the big deal...

And it's not as if graduating high-school, or even college, as an athlete will provide him a valuable education... Isn't it a given being part of a sports team will pretty much mean he'll be carried through the years and to the degree almost by default?

[Deleted]

isnt the whole point of the educational and college system to prepare the individual to be a productive member of society and to ensure that he is eligible to have a job that supports him? Or did I miss the point where he should spend the next two years of his life being babied, not taking the education seriously at all, and just wait till hes NBA eligible? Seriously how much is it gonna benefit him to go 1 year at college then entering the draft?

I say kudos to the kid for walking into no mans land and fighting the establishment...the kid is following his dream and with the money he is going to make will be able to send himself to any college he wants if his basketball career does not take off...

college is going to be there even by the time hes 50...a pro basketball career wont be...

the kid seems like a smart individual and the people around him (his father and uncle) are both wealthy and understand the decision and commitment he is making...they are even talking about him finishing school in Europe...

this happens all the time in other counties yet its such a big deal when it happens here...

how many people on this board alone have college degrees and cant find suitable work?

Good for the kid...time on this Earth is short..go for it

[Jay Peas 42]

If I remember correctly, Canada sends it's hockey players to play first, then school afterwards. I for one would rather get a career ending injury in the major leauges while being paid for it than playing for some college giving me a fake degree. Teenagers have their entire life to learn, they only a couple good years at sports, and if our society will pay so well for these skills, well, take the money and run.

[Insomniac]

If he succeeds, he paves the way for other star basketball players to drop out of high school and play in Europe until they're eligible for the NBA draft. As was already mentioned, Brandon Jennings skipped college to play a year in Rome, and he's projected to be a high draft pick this summer. He got paid to play a game he loves, in Rome, and didn't have to worry about taking tests or showing up for class.

Then again, high school basketball players would probably never even consider this if the NBA changed their Draft eligibility rules. If a kid wants to jump to the professional level and doesn't want to spend a year in college, they shouldn't have to.

It would be nice if they got a college education, but going to college for one year, especially when you know you aren't staying beyond that, seems pointless to me.

[El Hijo del Havoc]

Not as bad as the kid that dropped out of High School to play Guitar Hero all day

[Deleted]

Apr 23, 2009 17:16:26 GMT -5 El Hijo del Havoc said:

Not as bad as the kid that dropped out of High School to play Guitar Hero all day

hell kids around here all the time do this...usually though massive amounts of pot and drugs are involved in their reasoning

[AriadosMan]

The sad thing is, this is still better than the high school dumbing down its curriculum just so he could past the test. At least this way he MIGHT make some money, although I doubt he's wise enough to do anything intelligent with it.

[Dave at the Movies]

I don't see anything wrong with this. High school and college do not give the educations that they are suppose to these days. it isn't about education anymore. It is about going to school just so you can get a job although about 30-50% of college graduates end up working somewhere for less than 15 dollars an hour anyway. The educational system in the U.S. is bullcrap and it is only a matter of time until a college degree doesn't mean as much as it does.(Twenty years ago it meant a lot more because it was harder because it didn't cost as much to go to college)

I'd say today that a high school degree is almost more important than a college degree for one reason. Most jobs in the US are only required that you have a high school degree. If you go through college great but there is absolutely no guarentee you will get a good job and in fact it is more unlikely that you will these days.(and I don't just mean the economy I mean so many people get a college degree now because it is very easy compared to how it was thirty years ago.)

If he gets injured at least he can come back and take the GED test which is pretty much the exact same thing as a high school diploma now. Jobs don't care at all if you have a GED instead of a diploma now. They use to but they don't anymore because high school in the US is so bad.

[AriadosMan]

Apr 23, 2009 17:54:46 GMT -5 Dave at the Movies said:

I don't see anything wrong with this. High school and college do not give the educations that they are suppose to these days. it isn't about education anymore. It is about going to school just so you can get a job although about 30-50% of college graduates end up working somewhere for less than 15 dollars an hour anyway. The educational system in the U.S. is bullcrap and it is only a matter of time until a college degree doesn't mean as much as it does.(Twenty years ago it meant a lot more because it was harder because it didn't cost as much to go to college)

I'd say today that a high school degree is almost more important than a college degree for one reason. Most jobs in the US are only required that you have a high school degree. If you go through college great but there is absolutely no guarentee you will get a good job and in fact it is more unlikely that you will these days.(and I don't just mean the economy I mean so many people get a college degree now because it is very easy compared to how it was thirty years ago.)

If he gets injured at least he can come back and take the GED test which is pretty much the exact same thing as a high school diploma now. Jobs don't care at all if you have a GED instead of a diploma now. They use to but they don't anymore because high school in the US is so bad.

If he doesn't have the motivation/ability to get a high school diploma in the US, why would he have the ability to get a GED?

[Insomniac]

Apr 23, 2009 18:00:46 GMT -5 AriadosMan said:

If he doesn't have the motivation/ability to get a high school diploma in the US, why would he have the ability to get a GED?

Who says he doesn't have the ability to get a high school diploma? I never read anything about him being a poor student.

The reason he's doing this is to (1) Make money now, and (2) Better prepare himself for the pro game.

According to the story, he still plans on getting a GED and going to college down the road. Those options will always be there. The chance to make six or seven figures while living in Europe as a 17 year old won't be.

[Dave at the Movies]

Apr 23, 2009 18:07:52 GMT -5 Insomniac said:

Apr 23, 2009 18:00:46 GMT -5 AriadosMan said:

If he doesn't have the motivation/ability to get a high school diploma in the US, why would he have the ability to get a GED?

Who says he doesn't have the ability to get a high school diploma? I never read anything about him being a poor student.

The reason he's doing this is to (1) Make money now, and (2) Better prepare himself for the pro game.

According to the story, he still plans on getting a GED and going to college down the road. Those options will always be there. The chance to make six or seven figures while living in Europe as a 17 year old won't be.

Exactly. He will have the motivation to get a GED for the same reason most kids today get a GED............they don't want to waste time in high school when they can just take a simple test and be done with it.

[Dean-o]

The kid has a gift to play basketball at a high level. If he is successful, he will sadly make more money then any college education could provide.

I don't blame him, as I would do the same. If he manages his money right, he could even play for a few years and be set for life.

[bob]

This kid is a moron! You need to have a complete highschool education. If he completes highschool I have no problem with him going to the pros because he can use the moeny he earns playing basketball to pay for college.

[Deleted]

Apr 23, 2009 19:10:41 GMT -5 bob said:

This kid is a moron! You need to have a complete highschool education.

The millions of dollars he will be making that will be more then enough to pay for any college begs to differ my friend...