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NBA's High School Affair Must End
By Marc J. Spears, AOL BlackVoices columnist
I admit it. I was embarrassed. But I had to be there.
Back in January, I went to Indianapolis to interview a high school basketball star. That was bad enough considering I regularly write about the NBA, not high school. But what made it worse was this kid was just a junior. His name is Greg Oden, a 7-foot-1 center from Indianapolis North High who is considered the best prep player in the country and possibly the No. 1 pick of the 2006 NBA draft. Yes, 2006.
In today's search to find the next LeBron James, Jermaine O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudemire and Tracy McGrady, NBA teams have gone to high school gyms all over America and around the world. Visits to watch youngsters like Oden play is the norm.
"It has nothing to do with me," says Oden about all the NBA talk. "It’s just talk. I'm not talking about the NBA. That's other people. I'm just worrying about high school and trying to win another championship."
During the 2004 NBA Draft, eight of the first 20 picks came straight out of high school. High school stars like LeBron James and Dwight Howard have been the No. 1 picks in the draft the past two years. ESPN is televising several high school games a year now. And when asked about Oden, one NBA general manager said if he could have drafted him at 16 years old, he would have.
But for every James and Bryant, others like Korleone Young, Taj McDavid and Leon Smith try to make the leap from high school to the NBA and fall way short. It's not just Americans either. Teen NBA lottery picks from overseas like Darko Milicic and Nikoloz Tskitishvili have been heavily criticized as they struggle for minutes. Going from a boy to a man overnight is not easy. But as long as these youngsters put their name in the draft, expect NBA teams to continue attending prep camps in the summer or watching players overseas playing as early as age 14.
"The only real difficulty is trying to figure out what players who are so young will turn into (something)," Denver Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe says. "Having said that, I always encourage players to stay in school."
The love affair for teen talent, however, could come to an end soon. The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement ends on June 30. NBA Commissioner David Stern has wanted an age limit of 20. The NBA Players Association has fought against this idea. But in hopes of coming to an agreement on a new CBA, the players union might give up the age limit as a concession.
Comes as a surprise to me, because in late January I sat in the office of NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter and heard him strongly state that he wouldn't agree to such a thing. For about 10 minutes, he went down a list of about 30 NBA players who came straight out of high school or were teens from overseas. Hunter spoke about the playing exploits of many of those players and said that the most of them didn't get into trouble while in their teens, so he didn't understand where the concern was.
"My position on age is [that] I've obviously been against the imposition of an age limit beyond the one we currently have, which is that a kid has to graduate from high school," Hunter said. "After that, they can fight in the war, go to work, go to college, they can get married. They can do whatever they want. So why can't they play basketball in the NBA if the kid has the talent? That's not for everybody. But the experts and the pundits, the folks who actually make the selections, it’s incumbent on them to make the call.
"If they think he's good enough to be here, they give him an offer," Hunter said. "If he doesn't, he has to go about his business. Many are called but few are chosen. I don't think we should set some type of arbitrary roadblocks or impediments to keep people from coming in."
Well, expect the roadblocks to come. The main reason why the players union is now open to such an idea is because many NBA players have lost their jobs to make room for these unproven youngsters.
Just imagine what it would have been like if Bryant, McGrady and Garnett would have gone to college first? College basketball would have been better. Players would have entered the league more mature and prepared. Some who thought they were NBA material (i.e. Young, Smith and McDavid) would have figured out the limits of their ability while playing in college. And NBA teams and reporters like me wouldn't have to embarrass ourselves by watching high school juniors play any more.
"I see them and would be like, 'Dang, he's here,' " said Oden about NBA scouts coming to his game. "But really after that, I'm trying to win games and play good."
Isn't that what it should be all about?
About the Author:
Marc Spears is the NBA beat writer for the Denver Post and a regular contributor to AOL BlackVoices. His column appears every other Tuesday.