Jeremy Tyler: Acceptable
On the surface, Brandon Jennings made a stupid decision. He passed up on a free education at any of the top schools in the nation. Instead, he speaks broken Italian and plays basketball for Lottomatica Virtus Roma in Italy. As a proponent for higher education, I initially said this was ridiculous. Then, I realized that this is the ideal situation for the league.
As of now, the NCAA has become the unofficial NBDL for the NBA. Schools dish out thousands of dollars every year to have the best players play basketball at top schools. In turn, players stay in school for one year, drop out and go into the league. This bugs people like Mike Krzyzewski and I. We believe that if you enroll in school, it should be a commitment for a degree, not a championship. It seems selfish to me in a world where millions of citizens are willing to work hard and earn a degree but don’t have the financial means.
Then again, who should we place the blame on? If players could go straight to the league after high school we wouldn’t have this problem. David Stern is the one that should be stoned. Although he could be blamed, I’m on his side. He says he does it to develop players but don’t be fooled. He wants more educated players to somehow to decrease thuggery. It can’t be proven but I bet it’s a motive. A good amount of his time is spent on fines for cursing and fighting. A college atmosphere could somehow solve some things in his mind (Don’t tell him about the NFL). Whatever his rationale was, it persuaded him to put the one year rule into effect: which forces kids to abuse the college system. Now we can properly enter Brandon Jennings.
Brandon Jennings was the first guy to not bother with college because he wasn’t getting a degree. So, I just flip flopped. I wanted some alternative form of preparation but I had harsh words when Brandon Jennings left for Italy. That seems like the perfect solution. I don’t have to be bugged about guys abusing college when they skip college for Europe.
Ultimately, I think guys should enroll in school, get a degree, then get drafted. Alternatively, if you know you aren’t going to finish, just don’t go. Skip a step and make more money than most college graduates will ever make.
