ROAD TO THE FINAL DESTINATION

Let’s first take a look at the road that prospective players may take to get to their final destination.

Since the NBA started barring players from entering the draft straight out of high school five years ago, 17 players have left college early for the draft despite averaging less than 10 points per game in their final season.   Of the 17 early entrant hopefuls, only 8 were actually drafted.  Is the draft over-rated or is it the athlete?

Many of these hyped and high profiled athletes have yet to make any meaningful impact on their teams despite the high potential coming out of school early. Is the lack of a collegiate impact a telling sign after all? Well, the NBA has seen such hype before and we have witnessed it go unfulfilled.

Now, it is worthy to note that most of these athletes move on with the “blessings” from their prospective college coaches.  For example, Bill Self, coach of the Kansas Jayhawks, will be losing the twins, Marcus and Markieff Morris to enter the 2011 NBA draft.  Following the announcement of their decision, Self released this statement,

            "I am proud of Marcus and Markieff for the development and improvement

             they made, not only off the court, but on the court in their three years here.

             They have been an absolute joy to coach and performed at a level to give 

             them the opportunity to leave and enter the NBA draft after three years.  We

             not only wish them the best moving forward but also 100 percent support this

             decision for them to enter."

However, for each of the future pros who will bask in a glow of jubilation on June 23rd, there will be many more whose dreams will be at least temporarily dashed, a significant portion of whom would otherwise have had the chance to continue to develop in college.

Those such prospects will look back at May 8th, which is the deadline to withdraw from the draft pool, as a day of missed opportunities and irreversible mistakes.

It is also worthy to note that not all high profiled athletes opt for the early out.  Although Kansas lost the Morris twins to the NBA, two other players at KU, Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson have committed to stay in Kansas.  


Stay tuned!!  It will be interesting to specifically see the progress of these four players and others with similar paths in the coming years.

Also check out these links:

Undrafted and Undeterred: Long Shots Can Still Find NBA Success

Terrence Jones returning to Kentucky

RESOURCES
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/06/21/undrafted-and-undeterred-long-shots-can-still-find-nba-success/