Bettors should keep an eye on Jeremy Tyler, he might end up making noise in the NBA one day very soon. But we would rather him be making noise for college basketball right now wouldn’t we? What’s wrong with these kids, you’re a 6-11 beast with hands, relax, go to college, sleep with some hot cheerleaders, don’t worry you’re going to the league!
Everybody talks about Brandon Jennings, but it was Jeremy Tyler who was the first American born player, who actually left high-school early to go play professionally overseas. It was probably a bad idea and Tyler is now just another highschool phenom who decided to forego college basketball to play pro and is now on the verge of being forgotten. Read more.
It’s a bit of a risky call for many young North American basketball prospects to skip college and head straight to professional basketball overseas or in some foreign country. But since the NBA raised it’s age eligibility, we’ve seen more and young athletes having electing to try their luck in the professional ranks outside North America. I say it’s risky because going to college and moving to a completely different country are apples and oranges. For a 19 year old kid, being in a different country and essentially a different world can be a huge challenge. Now NBA star, Brandon Jennings found that out the hard way, and he actually tried to warn others to be wary of following in his footsteps. Read more.
Jennings was able to persevere through the culture shock from being away from, although he was lucky enough to have his family with him. Kids these days have to ask themselves if they truly know what they are getting themselves into and most of these young American ballers don’t, they just want to play ball. The next thing they know, they’ve ended up in a foreign world where nothing makes sense to them and they can’t even concentrate on ball, as the saying goes, “You’re a long way away from Kansas kid”.
To me, the worst part of this trend is how it hurts college basketball. I don’t want to see more and more talented young players heading overseas, I want to see them in Duke, North Carolina and Michigan State uniforms winning and losing championships and playing in Final Fours, and I know I’m not the only one.
But for the kid that goes overseas or plays in some other professional market, surviving the year will pay dividends. We saw how mature Brandon Jennings’ game was as a rookie, he credited that to playing with other men and constantly practicing and competing against other pros. Even though Brandon Jennings did not put up numbers overseas, the knowledge he brought back with him allowed him to put up huge rookie numbers in the NBA.
