The Steve Kerr thing

[John B. Foster]

"Regular folks" are allowed to go make a living after high school. Why should athletes go to college for a year if they can make the jump straight to the NBA?

Always seemed stupid to me. What do I know, though?!

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Seems like the baseball model, except maybe two years instead of three, is a decent compromise. There is absolutely no reason Lebron, Durant or even Kwame Brown needed to go to college at 18. Ben Simmons ****ing around at LSU was an absolute joke.

But, like baseball, plenty of good players are going to see that living a life of luxury in Chapel Hill beats riding the bus from Canton to Fort Wayne.

If you are close to set for life as a lottery pick, go for it. If you have no desire to ever open a book, go for it. If you and your family desperately need money right now, go for it.

But if not, commit to college for a couple years and even if you get hurt, you are presumably on the way to a degree at least.

 

[Slacker]

I wonder how Kwame Brown is functioning today. And how much of that $63 million is left.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I wonder how Kwame Brown is functioning today. And how much of that $63 million is left.

He's in that BIG3 league. Other than that, don't know.

 

[Slacker]

He's in that BIG3 league. Other than that, don't know.

Yeah, I saw that. Hope he didn't blow through all his dough.

 

[poindexter]

It always amazes me that Kwame Brown gets dragged into this discussion. The guy was the ******* number one pick of the draft! How much higher was he supposed to get by going to college?

He got a second contract. Which means he played 5 years in the league, then the NBA decided he was worth a large 8 figure contract.

 

[poindexter]

"Regular folks" are allowed to go make a living after high school. Why should athletes go to college for a year if they can make the jump straight to the NBA?

Always seemed stupid to me. What do I know, though?!

Because shotty needs college basketball to entertain him the way he likes it.

 

[LongTimeListener]

He owned his selfishness though. It was very brave.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Two sets of angel wings await you at the courtesy lounge.

 

[dirtybird]

I understand your point. I'd be interested to see how many of those early signees were successful and how many flamed out. And would three years of college cured whatever ailed Kwame? Damned if I know. But in retrospect, purely as a fan, I would have liked to have seen how that scenario played out.

The downside of this approach is the implicit idea that A. Kwame Brown was in fact talented enough to be a top pick after he spent years against good competition. B. College only helps, and there's no possibility of fighting with coaches, getting in trouble, having something else go sideways. Maybe he gets exposed like Skal Labissiere.

Did Kwame have the career a No. 1 pick should? Nope. But he got $17 million for that. After that, people paid him $47 million more to pay basketball and player 13 years. Would college have made him what he could've been? Who's to say?

 

[Stoney]

Maybe he gets exposed like Skal Labissiere.

Bullseye. This is what I think would've happened if Kwame Brown had gone to college.

Kwame was a vastly overrated prospect from beginning, who was the No. 1 overall pick only because his flaws were concealed before the Draft. If he'd played in college, those flaws would've been exposed before he was drafted, he would've consequently been a considerably lower draft pick, and ended up making far less than the 63 million he was paid in his career.

Career-wise, skipping college was probably a good decision for Kwame. I think he made a lot more money than he would've if he hadn't skipped. But mental health-wise, he'd probably be better off if he hadn't been drafted by the Wizards and subject to Michael Jordan's reportedly rather abusive approach to player development.

 

[dirtybird]

The full preps to pros list, from Wikipedia, going from KG to the start of one-and-done has 39 guys.

You've got seven true flameouts, plus whatever Bender was and Telfair. You've got six hall of famers, plus a couple really successful all-stars and Rashard Lewis. The rest are journeymen of various qualities. It raises the question of what exactly is a successful career.

Take for example Andrew Bynam. He won two titles, played in an all-star game and earned $70 million. That's probably decent ROI on a No. 10 pick. A knee killed his career. But a lot of folks would imagine college could have done something

 

[poindexter]

Kwame could have used several years of tutelage under Jim Boeheim. Would have enriched his life immeasurably.