Jumping from High School to the NBA Essay

As parents, we are staunch believers of the educational value high school presents, and the excitements youth sports bring us. However, most of us are to blame, behind the bright basketball court lights lie an ugly underbelly, a monstrous façade called politics. During the championship seasons, we’ve heard and even seen tales of

Before high school athletes totally rule out trying to play sports in college they need to consider the similarity and differences between high school and college sports. As young children, most high school athletes started out dreaming about being a sports star and making it into the professional. If these dreams are given up because college sports seem out of reach or too difficult, they will never know where they could have ended up. College sports can seem like a big step from high school sports but in the end they have many similarities.

Most African American that want to make it to the National Football League (NFL) or the National basketball League (NBA), do not realize there is a slim chance to none of actually going into a professional sport. Gates writes “African American youngster has about as much of becoming a professional athlete as he or she does of winning the lottery” (1). Not many African American youngsters know that there are “12 times more black lawyers than black athletes” or there are only 1200 blacks who play in a professional sport (1). There are 12 times more black professionals that are in the communities accommodating to the needs of those who need the assistance with either legal or health issues. The youth can achieve greatness in today’s society by getting a degree and forming a foundation to make enough to be financially stable.

In the collegiate world of sports, basketball has become an increasingly recognized sport among African Americans, predominantly males. The hope of any young basketball player is that one day a scout will come and recruit them into stardom The question that presents itself as a problem to the lucky few who are chosen to go professional, is whether or not an education is more important than a million dollar shoe deal, “The NCAA's (1998) annual six-year study reported that only 33% of Black male basketball players graduated, (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999). Individually, basketball reported the lowest graduation rate in all divisions,” (Robinson, 2004:1). Basketball players have become so idolized in the eyes of young

         The NBA has seen many different players come and go throughout its 50 years of existence. In the last 15 years, there has been a boom of underclassmen leaving college early to enter the NBA draft. The last NBA draft in June, the top ten picks alone were underclassmen(Sports Illustrated, 264). Many more underclassmen are entering the NBA this year. The typical college career for the basketball players is playing until your junior year, then going pro. The NBA and the NCAA must do something in order to keep these young players in college.

Lebron James and Freddy Adu are both young athletes and with millions in their pockets with a countless number of endorsement contracts. Whether it is high school athletes skipping college and discontinuing the development of their education for millions of dollars, or teenagers signing contracts with businesses for massive amounts of money, youth sports programs are changing rapidly. However, American high school athletes are not financially, physically, or mentally prepared to tackle and endure the pressures of professional sports.

There are many high school basketball phenoms that are scouted by pro teams even when they are in high school. A select few in the past have gone straight to the NBA out of high school and had a lot of success, while some players go to college all four years to develop their skills at the next level. However, there are athletes that will waste one year at the college level just so they could get to the NBA. Why would you waste one year of your life when you could have already been in the NBA a year earlier? Basketball players should either go to college all four years and enhance their skills and get a solid education. If not, skip college and go straight to the NBA, rather than wasting a year of your life, and possibly a classroom seat for a person who wanted to get an education.

Drafted by the NBA at the age of 19, many critics wondered if he would last. Not many kids know how to handle fame, most end up on the never-ending road of drugs and rehab...a cycle that never ends.

This shows these athletes would do better off with the professional help of the NBA. A major part of my action plan is to provide these athletes with the option to either attend a college or university for one year and then enter into the NBA draft or become drafted straight out of high school with the understanding that they will have to play for that specific teams developmental league for one year before joining the actually team itself. Ultimately, this plan would allow athletes to receive the financial benefits needed in the short term while still developing and preparing themselves for years in the NBA.

In the last ten years many young and talented high school basketball players have chosen to enter the NBA draft. These 17 and 18 year olds decide to skip college, and instead they choose to take a big risk and enter the NBA, hoping to become stars and earn millions of dollars. In many cases, these youngsters’ careers are a failure because they don’t turn out as talented as they thought to be. They end up spending only a few seasons in the NBA because they are not good enough to compete at that level. Many of them have to move on to doing other things, such as playing basketball overseas, doing everyday jobs, or going back to college to earn a degree.

Next, by an athlete staying and completing their education teaches the athlete maturity levels and raises maturity levels of an athlete. By staying in college an athlete can grow, develop, and mature throughout the course of their years in college. The athletes brain is more developed. The athlete has a more mature, developed mindset that benefits the athlete by allowing them to see game plans in a different perspective and allows the athlete to face challenges with a clearer mind, because college has equipped them with more experience in tough situations. For example, Michael Jordan, also known as MJ, received a full athletic scholarship to North Carolina University in 1981. Jordan played for the North Carolina Tar Heels for 3 years. Although Jordan was drafted in the 1984 NBA draft, he was only a junior in college.

In order to make it in the NBA, black students will have to finish high school and go to a college. The NBA rules states in order to be eligibility for the NBA draft the one-and-done rule is in effect (Wikipedia). Meaning one year of college is all your need. Despite this, black students feel this bias towards them, and compared the MLB Draft Rule, “High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college” (Major League Baseball) can still join the MLB. The black community feels this not equal and fails to gives hope to some black students, a great example

If he had made the jump from high school to the NBA, he would have been able to make his career debut in the NBA and would have had a smoother transition into the NBA. Shown by the college basketball career of Kyrie Irving, playing in college can affect a player’s NBA draft overall in the occasion that the player gets

In Mr. Duangdao’s article, he explains how a college basketball player was drafted in the 2015 NBA Draft. The man who was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers was Larry Nance Jr. He was drafted 27th by the team and came alongside D’Angelo Russell at the No. 2 pick. After being picked by the Los Angeles Lakers, Larry Nance Jr. reflected on his drafting. Larry Nance Jr. was drafted out of Wyoming while playing four years of college basketball. Larry Nance Jr. hopes to become a part of the Lakers family and help win championships.

Of course I had dreams of playing professional sport like every other young male in the world but, a wise man spoke to me and he asked me how much my favorite basketball player makes on average, I did the research and Lebron James makes over 300 million dollars annually. Younger me got that information and as expected I held strong on my dreams of being a professional athlete until he showed me 0.0015% of Americans make it into the NBA.”Out of every 10,000 kids playing basketball in high school only 3 will make it to the pros. Note, this doesn’t mean they’re going to stay in the pros more than 5 seconds. This doesn’t mean they’re going to get a sneaker deal and be in a Pepsi commercial This simply means they’ll get drafted.” (Odds of Playing).