Brandon Jennings is a 20 year old point guard of the Milwaukee Bucks. He is a rookie in this league and he got there in an unusual way. After the NBA decided that players could not immediately go straight to the NBA from high school. Instead players now need to be at least 19 years of age and one year removed from high school. Jennings found himself a loophole which many considered a huge gamble and could possibly lead to decreasing his draft stock instead of increasing it.
Originally Jennings was going to attend the University of Arizona but then later decided to skip college all together and play professional basketball overseas where he could not only gain experience in the game but make some money as well. This decision led him to Italy where he played for Lottomatica Roma. He was guaranteed 1.65 million dollars and also received a two million dollar endorsement deal from Under Armor. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for a young guy right? Well not exactly. He pretty much played like crap while in Italy. He only made about thirty six percent of his shots, averaged around six, seven points a game. In high school Jennings averaged nearly thirty three points a game. So you can count that as kind of a fail.
After he entered the draft many felt like he wasn't even a first round selection anymore. But he was invited to New York anyways and the Bucks took a chance and drafted him tenth overall. It's kinda worked out for both parties this season. Jennings is a top canedate for the Rookie of the Year Award averaging sixteen points a game and six assists while his team is currently holding the fifth potential playoff spot in the eastern conference.
Enter stage left Jeremy Tyler. He too is a high school basketball star who doesn't feel the need for college so he too bolts for Europe. Now with Tyler the biggest question for me is why. His kid was living and playing in San Diego, California. San-Dee-Aa-go. SAN DIEGO! Now for those who don't understand why I am making a big deal about San Diego its because if I could choose one city to live in, San Diego is at the top of the list. But this knucklehead thought he would be better off to drop out of high school as a junior to go play pro ball in Europe. But theres more to it than picking a school then deciding otherwise. He really had no choice because he bombed the crap out of the SATs so no college would accept him regardless of his basketball talent. So he signed a contract with Maccabi Haifa, which played in the Israel league. Things didn't work out too well for Tyler who stands at six foot eleven inches and is incredibly athletic. He appeared in ten games averaging two points and two rebounds while averaging about eight minutes a game. Still...hes sixteen, seventeen years old making over one hundred K for this time there. However Tyler didn't like how things were going and quit the team with five weeks left in the season. He said he found it hard adapting to the professional style of the game and couldn't seem to find a way into the starting lineup. Well no kidding!
It's more than that though. This kid clearly had attitude and maturity problems. During one game he walked out on his team in protest for not getting enough playing time. Because that makes sense right. A kid in high school thinking everything is going to be handed to him walks out when its not. Instead of getting the playing time he wanted the coach sat his butt down for three games in street clothes and off the official roster. But what hurts Tyler the most in this case is that this stint in Israel does not count towards his eligibility so he is still a year away from being allowed to enter the NBA draft but he also can't sign another pro contract somewhere else until September.
This whole topic has been big one me for quite some time. I guess you can say I have a different belief than most when it comes to athletes and college. I never really liked or approved the special treatment that a star athlete or any athlete for that matter gets in high school and even in college. For me I believe that if they kids really want a job in professional sports they like us normal person should have to a full college career. If they people are bound to make more money than any other job field why should they get a shortcut to it? Of course we all know that going to college is a lot more than getting that piece of paper that formally says yay you did it welcome to the real world but its the people you befriend and the memories you make along with it. And really nobody should be denied that regardless of their financial status or social status. Plus as an athlete it seems silly to just put all your chips in one basket because face it, not everyone becomes a star in any professional sports league and a lot of those who didn't were able to use the degrees they earned and find a new job else where. Now I'm sure a number of you will find all this quite silly and thats okay but it's just where I stand on the issue.
As always thank you for logging in today. Feel free to check out the the fan page of Facebook and the Twitter page by searching Ice Cold Sports. Next time on the program we'll dab into an exciting scuffle that involved a fan and the CEO of a team. You won't want to miss that one. This has been Ice Cold Sports part of the Radio Blog Network.
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