Forget College....

It's pretty sad though, if you want to learn to play basketball, playing in Europe or the D-League is going to actually get you better prepared. The NCAA has all sorts of asinine rules about how much time coaches can spend with student athletes, where as in the D-League is "professional" (you get paid, no time limits) and Europe starts their kids out doing nothing but basketball at a much earlier age.

 

Sheed's trouble passing the SAT's were well documented in the Philadelphia Inquirer when I was younger. He was a standout, to the point where his name was plenty recognizable and lots of his games were televised his senior year, and I think it took him maybe seven times to get the required score. Having that routinely broadcasted to the entire metro area couldn't have been easy. Keep in mind that this was when 700 was the rule, and no sliding scale based on high school grades. Amazing that someone that was obviously dumb as a brick book wise ends up being one of the most intelligent basketball minds in the NBA as a player.

As far as European teams being interested, guys that are 15 ppg scorers in tiny colleges can go over and make a living pretty easily, and there are multiple european and asian leagues and even an israeli league where those guys could easily make 50 grand minimum and maybe a whole lot more. Though the rest of the world is catching up, we're still churning out more talent than any other nation, and there certainly is a market for kids that can drive and dunk, especially if they have an even decent jump shot.

 

Yeah, but aren't most of the players who succeed overseas accomplished shooters, passers, & rebounders? Those aren't just developmental leagues over there, they want to win, and I don't see how ridiculously athletic but largely unskilled 19 year olds will help them do that. I could be wrong, I'd just be surprised if European teams were that interested in non-qualifying high schoolers.

 

I would too especially after word about the Frenchie's playing time. Euro teams seem to value experience and loyalty, as well as continuity a lot more than NBA teams. For that reason, it seems hard to imagine a glut of 19 year old kids garnering a lot of playing time for one year.

The point about coaching time though when it comes to nbdl/euro vs ncaa is a good one though. They would still get a lot of valuable experience in Europe even if they didn't play that much. But at that point, what's in it for the Euro clubs?

 

Lebron James was thinking about going to Europe when the NBA was considering the 1 year college rule. he was pretty much the last of the high schoolers to NBA

 

Well, LeBron had to figure out how to pay for that Hummer somehow.

 

If he can average 5 PPG, the Bobcats will draft him.

 

And away he goes..

Jennings decides to go to Europe...

UA recruit opts to play in Europe

 

Excellent logic.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/8350752/Jennings-to-play-in-Rome,-not-Arizona

I have to agree... Rome probably is more interesting then Tucson. Unless your 55+.