So, today I heard that up to 13 (?!?!?) high school men may be taken in this years NBA draft. Amazing. Granted, in the last few years, the average age of draftee was about 20-21, which sums out to be those that should be entering into their junior year of college. Now, I don’t think that all of these kids will be getting huge contracts (for those that don’t know, all rookie signees must sign a three year contract, per the collective bargining agreement or something like that with the union), but still, don’t that make you wonder about the state of basketball these days. Now, these 13 are good…really good, according to most publised reports. But that is againts the best HIGH SCHOOL talent in the country. What happens when you go up againts a fellow named Saqu, or the fabulous Wallace twins. Also, one must consider how long its going to take for these men to develop into “NBA” quality players. Sure, you’ve got Lebron, who I admit was much better than I, or for that matter the rest of the nation, thought he would be. In fact, barring injury or some stupid act, he made the best player of his generation (along with stodimare from the Suns). But what of the others??? Garnett and Kobe were high schoolers, and they took some time to get going….Kobe did in a contract year and made the Lakers pay. Then you’ve got Kwambe Brown, drafted #1 overall by his Airness two years ago. That boy is still developing…and brings me to the point. If you draft a HS and it takes him three or four years to get it going and truly contribute, will the drafting team still keep him. If K Brown has a standout year, will the Wizards (his team) resign him??? Or be able to afford him???

Also to be looked at is the sponsership. Lebron had 90 Million from a shoe company (??, know it was somebody) before he was drafted. And some kid got a big deal from adidas…and is thought to be going to Portland, where, how bout that!!!, Adidas US HQ is located. These are why todays society sometimes amazes me. Big business controlling a draft….give me football, where a father influences the draft….or baseball, where the drafts don’t make sense at all….but, the whole idea is for the kids to just go to college. Sure, the are basically slaves to the athletic department, but dammit…there getting an great education handed to them…look at some of the top schools in the last few years…Stanford, DUKE (?!?), Kansas, Wake Forest, Syrcuse (sp?), Michigan, Kentucky….all great places to get a degree, and yet they come for the year, and then bail, and then sit the bench….of all the players that are in high school, less than 5% will ever see any long-term playing time in the NBA….

Also, most of my arguement for this is based on the fact I hate the NBA, and love college basketball….

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