What worries me is that of all the kids that come from schools like these, How many actually GET to the NBA and how many of those actually DO WELL? I like college basketball more than football because the game seems more fair There are fewer "gimme games" set up by the coaches to get easy wins and pad their stats. It seems every year there is at lest 2 or 3 tams that go undefeated in football but in basketball you may get one team every couple of years. i mention this because these kids get fooled into thinking once they get in a good college school they have a good shot at the pros only to find out that even the WORST b-ball pro was extremely good in college. My favorite example of a good college player not making it in the pros is the no 1 draft pic in 84 (I believe) the same year MJ came out. and where is he now? anyone know how his career went?
hmmmm... I think you are talking about Sam Bowie, but he was not #1, he was #2, after Hakeem Olajuwan. Obviously Olajuwan was a P.I.M.P, but Bowie was not bad either. He was obviously no Jordan, but he still managed to put up career numbers of 10.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.78 blocks per game over 10 seasons despite starting his career with significant injury problems. So maybe, not the best example, but your point is well taken, and I think that you are proabably right that ,most of these kids don't see the bigger picture at the time, and that some of those financially driven false hopes hurt kids in the long run.
i mention this because these kids get fooled into thinking once they get in a good college school they have a good shot at the pros only to find out that even the WORST b-ball pro was extremely good in college. My favorite example of a good college player not making it in the pros is the no 1 draft pic in 84 (I believe) the same year MJ came out. and where is he now? anyone know how his career went? I bet that these kids are still better off in the long run than the kids that didn't have the promise of basketball at all. Just because you aren't in the NBA, it doesn't mean that you can't make a decent living in Europe playing basketball. Also, if you are from a poor neighborhood, how else are you going to improve your life? If they aren't good in school, then basketball or some other sport is their ticket to college and (hopefully) a better life.
Funny, I was just researching this topic a bit recently because of a game here in Cincinnati between local North College Hill HS (ranked #2 nationally, at the time at least... don't know if they still are) and Oak Hills Academy(Ranked #1). I thought it was interesting that Oak Hills doesn't play in a league but rather travels the countryside. Oh, and Akeem Olajuwon? I'm guessing, hoping actually, you mean Sam Bowie, blaktrain (on preview: Dammit! too slow). And everett, just my $.02 but I would have gone after the missing apostrophe in "cant" as I think that sentence works with either "their" or "there".
Good point about the missing apostrophe SRW, ( I love it when we get down to the real substantial issues here on SpoFi).
There's plenty of blame all around in this situation...but let's dump some of the blame on these kids parents or legal guardians too...are they looking out for the kids...or the "bling-bling" from a pro contract the chances are the kid will never get...
I just went back and looked at the 1st round picks from 84. I did nto realize who was in that group! Damn!! Good crop (understatement intentional)
