Although the season is young, it is not too early to evaluate the newcomers of the NBA. Unfortunately, the most hyped rookie, Blake Griffin, has not played a regular season game as of yet, and judging by his phenomenal pre-season, we can expect big things from him in Los Angeles. However, he will need to put up some big numbers to compete for the Rookie of the Year, because through the first week of the season Brandon Jennings is the best rookie in the league. If you haven't heard of Brandon Jennings before, it's because he is not the typical NBA rookie.
Brandon Jennings took the scenic route to get to the 2010 NBA Draft. The kid who should have been Arizona's next stud point guard was the most talented high schooler in the nation in 2008. Academic issues kept Jennings from fulfilling his commitment to the Wildcats, and he decided to become the first high school super-recruit to take their game overseas and play professionally. Jennings was highly criticized for his decision to travel overseas for a year and play professionally in Europe. His journey had him homesick, playing minimal minutes, and training all day long with men. Not 18 year old boys, but 24 year old men who had played in the tough conferences in the NCAA. Although he admits to regretting his decision to play in Europe at times, he did not break. Jennings made the most of his decision, and he got better. Mentally, physically, emotionally. Jennings is showing that he is a step ahead of the rest of the rookie class.
After the success we are seeing in just his first few NBA games, Jennings likely will not be the last to take the trip to Europe for a year before gaining eligibility for the NBA. He has shown his time in Italy was well spent, as he is the most impressive rookie through the first week of the season. Just an assist and a rebound shy of a triple-double in his NBA premier, followed by a pair of 20+ games have NBA owners kicking themselves for allowing him to slip to the 10 spot in the draft. With the current NBA rule that players must be one year out of high school to declare for the draft, Jennings has blazed a trail for future high school phenoms - and it is already happening.
Jeremy Tyler is a 6-11 would be high school senior, if he were attending high school. Tyler, from San Diego High School, decided to skip his senior season of high school basketball, and play professionally in Israel for two years before entering his name in the NBA Draft in 2011. He signed a 1-year, $140,000 contract with an Israeli professional team, and will be training with players 10 years older than him for the next 2 years, instead of playing paper football in 3rd Period Study Hall. As long as Tyler stays healthy, this could be the best decision for his NBA career, and one that plays a role in many future high school underclassmen's lives as well. I think this is great for these players, as they will become better basketball players playing professionally rather than attending college. However they are missing out on the experience that is college basketball, as well as an education (even though it would be a 1 year education in these cases).
This sucks. Jennings is a piece of shit. just because he is too dumb to score high enough on an SAT to get into UA (which as an alum I can say, you don't have to score that high), doesn't mean that his decision was right nor should others follow in his footsteps. Jennings would have been the #1 pick had he stayed in the States. The more kids that take this route, the worse the landscape of college basketball will become.
ReplyDeleteI would rather have these kids like Brandon Jennings play overseas for a year than cheat and manipulate college basketball like Derrick Rose or O.J. Mayo. College basketball is a great sport because the kids are always playing their hearts out for their school - they play defense, they dive for loose balls, they play team offense with winning the game as the sole purpose. The one-and-dones ruin this aspect of college basketball. If Jennings would have committed to Memphis, you can bet that John Calipari would have made sure he got a high enough SAT score. The NBA has got to change the one year rule.
ReplyDelete