Between 1995 and 2005 there were 28 players that were selected in the first round of the NBA Draft that came straight out of high school. But beginning in 2006, the NBA passed a rule that in order to be eligible for the NBA Draft, a player had to be out of high school for at least one year while also being at least 19 years of age. Since the NBA implemented this rule, 53 college freshman have been selected in the first round of the draft. The eligibility requirements for the NBA are a joke as the majority of these players attend college for a year when they truly do not want to be there. Three players that have used in loopholes in the NBA’s eligibility rules for the draft are current Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings, New York Knicks power forward Jeremy Tyler and China-bound point guard Emmanuel Mudiay.
As a high school senior at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, Jennings averaged 32.7 points, 7.4 assists, and 5.1 rebounds per game. In 2008, Jennings spurned a basketball scholarship to the University of Arizona and opted to play professionally for Lottomatica Roma in Italy on a one-year contract for $1.65 million. Jennings only averaged 17 minutes per game as he averaged 5.5 points, 2.2 assists, and 1.6 rebounds. It was a humbling experience for Jennings as he claimed that he was treated like a “little kid”. Jennings would return to the United States in 2009 and he was drafted with the tenth overall selection of that year’s NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. After spending a year in Europe, Jennings was adamant that other potential NBA players should not follow suit.
In 2009, Tyler decided to skip his final year of high school to play in Israel for Maccabi Haifa. But after just 10 games, Tyler basically got homesick and he decided to come back to the States.
Now begins the case of Mudiay. Mudiay is a native of the Congo and he had verbally agreed to play college basketball in the upcoming season at Southern Methodist University for head coach Larry Brown. But there have been rumors about Mudiay’s eligibility for the upcoming college basketball season and this week Mudiay turned down SMU in favor of money as he signed a one-year, $1.2 million deal to play in China for the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Jennings couldn’t wait to get out of Italy while Tyler didn’t last a month in Israel. But what about Mudiay?
Unlike Jennings and Tyler, Mudiay has already lived in another country as he comes from the Congo.
Unlike most college freshman in this era that are treated like rock stars when they arrive on a college campus, youngsters overseas are given a harsh reality check. Sometimes players are not paid on time overseas and they get lost in the shuffle as they are in a foreign land. But at big-time colleges and universities in the United States these players are literally playing for free. In power college basketball conferences such as the Atlantic Coast and Big Ten Conferences, each basketball team on average generates about $15 million per year. But with the exception of a few Nike brand or Adidas sweatsuits and sneakers, the players that generate the money do not see a dime of it.
The problems of players such as Jennings, Tyler, and Mudiay, could be fixed if the NBA decided to further establish their developmental league. Generally the NBA Developmental League is reserved for players that either left school early and didn’t get drafted who are trying to make it to the league or players that had an NBA career and are trying to make it back there. But what if just like in Major League Baseball, the NBA would draft players straight out of high school and put them into a minor-league system?
The days of a basketball players staying all four years in college is a dying concept as today’s athlete realizes more than ever that sports is a business and they must be compensated handsomely for their services. The era in which the NCAA prohibited freshman from playing collegiate athletics is a thing of the past as well. With national exposure on the high school circuit that includes AAU teams and under-18 national teams, these basketball players are ready for the bright lights when they arrive on campus to play for free. So why force them to be there?
The purpose of going to college is to become further educated which should enhance your earning ability. But these high school basketball players already have a skill that will allow them to earn a lucrative salary.
The NBA implemented their rule in 2006 due to the fact that teams were taking chances by drafting the teeny boppers in the first round and it was tough for them to gauge how good a prospective high school kid would be in a few years. To me it is just a cop out by the NBA and their respective teams due to the fact some of these same teams will draft “seasoned” college basketball players who do not work out either. My message to the NBA teams that are griping about the high schoolers is simple; hire better scouts. But the NBA will continue to turn a blind eye to this problem due to the fact the collegiate game gets an opportunity to have some fun as players that would have never stepped foot on a college campus are now there for at least a year.
Each year University of Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari rolls out the red carpet to unveil five new McDonald’s All-Americans in his starting lineup. Calipari consistently does this because each year he loses numerous freshman to the NBA Draft. The NCAA and their institutions want to push the issue of academics and the fact that these basketball players are “student athletes” and it is hilarious. Most of these players that potentially have a pro career ahead of them take out insurance policies on themselves while they are still “amateurs”. If a basketball player enters college and he knows that he is going to the NBA Draft in a year, theoretically he only has to go to school for the fall semester in order to remain eligible; so where is the wonderful idea of academia going?
We live in a world where players are signed to professional baseball and tennis contracts at the age of 16. Soccer phenoms are recruited to play professionally before they can shave and the same can be said about child prodigies in golf. The NBA is lagging behind in this issue and we need to see more players follow the path of Jennings, Tyler, and Mudiay with less heading to college campuses in this country to “volunteer” their services so that coaches and school administrators can get rich off of their skill.
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