Woj nails it (NBA draft age requirements)

Exactly. Shawn Kemp had plans to attend college, and I believe he actually enrolled at Kentucky. When he decided to become a thief, he headed to the NBA.

Shawn Kemp is just a big an exception to the rule on the screw-up side as LeBron and Kobe are on the superstar side.

 

Shawn Kemp was an All-Star, if not All-Pro, player for the first 10 years of his career. His screw-ups didn't derail his career until he was 30 years old.

 

OK, so here's the argument so far:
Side 1) Going straight from high school to the NBA is ruining college basketball, which I don't like because I think March Madness is awesome. Also, it doesn't properly "season" the high school players, so that they aren't tough enough to win NBA championships without help (Moses Malone and Kobe notwithstanding, and this isn't getting into international players).

Side 2) This is America, and every 18-year-old kid has the God-given right to hoodwink some NBA team into throwing millions and millions of dollars at them, even if the reality is that they are terrible. Going to college would not be the best thing for them, because college would expose the fact that they are softer than the Stay-Puft man, and then those millions of dollars would go to somebody else.

Look, the point nobody seems to be bringing up is that the age limit is put into place to protect the idiot NBA front offices. They're tying themselves to the masts so they're not lured by the siren call of some 7-footer in rural North Dakota whose only "competition" has come in half-assed all-star games. It seems to me that HS-to-NBA busts in the early part of the first round are much worse for teams than college busts. Laettner wasn't a spectacular player, not as good as his draft position, but he was a fairly steady producer. Same for, say, Wally Szczerbiak.
Are there 18-year-olds who do not need college, and should go straight to the NBA? Yes. We've seen several in recent years: Kobe, KG, LeBron. Are there players who went straight to the NBA and were abject failures? Absolutely, with Kwame Brown and Darius Miles at the top of the list.
The point some people seem to be making is that the Brown and Miles families, who were poor before all this, are now set for life, and that this is both a good thing and a reason for allowing people like them to go straight to the NBA. I would love to see somebody do a feature on HS-to-NBA draft busts and how much of that money they still have. Are they like poor families that win the lottery, and then blow it all in only a few years?

If you're a four-year starter at Wisconsin and you get drafted into the NBA, then wash out before you reach your second contract, you can always go back and sell insurance or cars in Madison, or go into coaching. Guys who go straight from high school and then wash out don't have that luxury.

 

But, if you're a high school kid that gets drafted in the first round (thus, receiving guaranteed money) you've already built a nice nest egg. If it doesn't work out, you can always go back to college if you want, or even go to Europe and make a nice living overseas.

I don't want it to seem like I advocate kids forgoing college for the NBA. I think all kids should at least attend college for two years, not because I think it helps them mature ON the court, but OFF the court. My problem is with people like 93Devil and others who refuse to admit that there are exceptions to the rule and blatantly omit top players with some loophole because they don't fit their argument.

That would be an interesting study that you brought up.
I'd also like to see a study that would show the percentage of busts between high schoolers vs. college seniors. I was going through the NBA drafts the last decade or so and, sure, there are a handful of glaring busts from the high school level. But, for the most part, a lot of the kids have lived up to their potential.

 

No "study" needed, really. Just look through the drafts since the high school to pro phenomenon began in the late 90s and it becomes apparent that the high schoolers have succeeded at a far higher rate than drafted college seniors during that period.

Now, obviously, that is mostly because they tend to be more talented to begin with, but the fact is the empirical evidence simply doesn't support this theory that 4 years of college makes one a better pro. None of today's best young players finished college, whereas every MVP candidate except Paul (who attended only 2-years) were high school guys. Old-timers Duncan and Nash are the only college senior all-stars left, the rest are all no-college or left early guys. And nearly all recent college senior superstars have been very mediocre or outright busts like Redick in the pros.

 

Not if you blew your entire nest egg on diamond jewelry and luxury automobiles (and your friends and family taking their cuts).
And does anybody think a European team will take a flyer on Kwame Brown?

 

I think they would in a heartbeat, but I don't believe Kwame has any interest. I don't get the impression he enjoys playing at all anymore, and certainly not for what a European team would pay him.

 

Actually, the question should be, does anyone think a Euro team WOULDN'T (like PCLoadLetter, said). I know guys locally who played high school and college, never came close to being drafted and play professionally overseas. Brown is a no-brainer (pun intended). But PCLoadLetter also brought up a good point, Brown doesn't seem to love basketball. But, I guarantee you, if he needs money, he's lovin Europe.