High School Athletes Should Consider College Over The Nba

High School Athletes Should Consider College over the NBA

In the last ten years, many young and talented high school basketball players have chosen

to enter the NBA draft. These seventeen and eighteen 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 failures because sometimes they don’t turn out as talented as they were hyped up 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. Basketball players who enter the NBA early are not ready for the NBA. Early entry into the NBA by high school and college basketball players have had a negative affect on the college basketball program, the NBA, and the players themselves. Each year the number of early entries in the NBA rises more and more. In 1997, forty-seven basketball players entered the NBA draft early, and the number has risen since then. Unfortunately the college program is drained of talent due to players leaving early. The high school players that go directly into the NBA are hurting the college program because they never contribute to the college program at all. Now the NBA has to deal with a higher level of immaturity and disrespect by young players. College basketball players obtain a certain amount of respect and maturity in college. The players suffer by not grasping the concept of learning due to lack of education.

With the number one pick in the NBA draft, the Washington Wizards selected eighteen year old Kwame Brown. Each year in the NBA draft, the candidates get younger due to all the high school basketball players entering the draft. As good as they are in high school; the NBA is a completely different level. Kwame Brown experienced the change of the competition level from getting a lot of playing time or playing the whole game in high school to not getting a lot of playing time his rookie year in the NBA. Many high school players do not have the discipline or other tools they need for the NBA that they could get if they played in college. High school basketball players should go to college for at least a couple of years, instead of going straight to the NBA.

The high school competition level is a lot different from the NBA. According to DeCourcy, “Intensity is much greater in college than in high school”. In college, basketball