ADN

QUOTEFor every 1 highschool player you name who doesnt have an impact after draft day...I can name you..hell probably 25 college players over the years who've come into the NBA and aint dont shit.. So that arguement isnt really valid.

My argument is that if we are talking about helping or hurting...It does not hurt the NBA if Lebron goes to college...Remember Harold Minor..? I wouldn't, except that he averaged 30+ a game while at USC...He was touted as the next Michael Jordan...They called him Baby Jordan, to be exact...You think he helped the Heat sell a few tickets when they drafted him..?

Yes, because people saw him lighting the shit up in college, and hoped he did the same...Had Kwame Brown went to college, we would have known then what we know about him now...You can't deny that college isn't an extra filter...Nobody is trying to hurry from high school football to the NFL...What's the difference..? You figure you're more suited to take an ass whippin' at 21, instead of 18..?

What is does help, is that there is are certain things you are "supposed" to learn when you're in school that helps you deal with the world...I am 27, I cannot honestly say that I would have known how to properly handle 90 million dollars...

Going to school and at least hoping that a youngster learns something, gains or exerts another influence, etc...Many players that fall out of the NBA after having done school go on to be coaches on lower levels...And they do it with a degree..

I also think to a small degree that a lot of players who jump ship and go straight to the draft are a little worried......


worried about having their stock go completely down when people see them play against people their height. Eddy Curry DOMINATED highschool ball, at a school not to far from where I live....but of course he did it, no one else in the state that age was within 7 inches of him. then he gets to the NBA when people can actually look him in the eye...and he gets beat. So, from a player perspective...its a little shakey.

Lebron James is giving the Cav's their highest attendence ever...and helping raise the NBA's excitment rating....please tell me how in any way shape or form, the NBA, him, or the fans would have beneifited if he had been playing ball at Duke rather than being a star on the highest stage..

Eh...I said it was a return investment, right..? Had the Bulls seen Eddie Curry in college getting dicked, you think they would have drafted him that high..? What about Sean May..? You know what high school he went to..? Hell I don't...You think his draft stock is higher now, than it would have been had he come straight out of H.S...?

You come out of high school w/hype, with the exception of LeBron, you are getting a rookie contract...You come out of college with hype, you get a stars salary from the gate...The NBA benefits from stars in college moving to the next level...They are in a sense, already more proven than H.S. kids...

LeBron is a gifted athlete, but he's also the best athlete on his team...He's young yet, and has MUCH to learn and improve...I say Lebron will be the same caliber player TMac is...

HBO Sports had a program on recently about football players who are on the verge of retirement, and these guys can't even fill out a resume or an application form!

The league had to sponsor a training seminar to get these guys some help with job skills and seeing what they can do after they're time with the pro ranks is up!

If they're having that much trouble in football, what will these basketball guys do if and when they retire? Will the NBA pay for going to college or will they say, "Hey, you're no good to us now" and kick them out?

The NBA paying for them to go to college when they retire is probably the most ridiculous idea that I've ever heard in my life. If they want to skip college, it's their decision.

The NFL has been named by far the sport with the most intelligent athletes, because they all have gone to college, and if you've never played it then you dont know, but football is one helluva tough mental game. All the plays you gotta memorize and the spilt second decision making you have to do if a play breaks down and so on an so forth. Football players need a much higher mental capacity then any other sport I think and because they all go to college it makes them pretty intelligent people.

I agree with you LG. NFL tests you mentally and produces some smart-ass people. That is a downside to the high school players heading to the NBA. I think that it is a good idea though for the teams to offer to pay for college when they retire. It will give them something to fall back on.

Nah, fuck that...If I were an owner, they asses better go to school man...I wouldn't pay for a damn thing...But I know a couple basketball players that jump to the league cause they can't make the grades to get into college...Hell places where they ball hard like the Rucker or something, hell there are probably a ton of pro caliber players there...

Grades and basketball players...Oooh wee...There are alot of dumb althletes though, from all sports...

One guy that I used to play against was drafted by the Dodgers last year had that in his clause that when if he decided to retire before he made it to the Big Team that they'd pay for him to go to college. The Dodger's agreed to it. I don't think teams mind doing it.

They're getting paid 90 million dollars to drink a sprite bottle....and now its the NBA's responibility to pay for them to go to college?! They pay for them to play, if they want to skip college, it's on them. They skip college for the money, a majority of the time, so why after they retire after choosing the money over the education, should they get the money.....then on top of that...more money for the education. I mean....this is a society where a person throwing an orange thing in an round thing is getting paid probably 200 times more than people who run into burning buildings to save people. I don't think athletes need anymore benefits and gifts in life.

QUOTE(TylerDurden)age limit should be 18.

but then you gotta worry about what kind of lifestyle these kids will be livin' at   18!

Stern has a valid argument...but i think 18 is old enough...just gotta keep an eye on em!

It's the National Basketball Association, not the National Babysitters Association.

Out of all the young kids in the NBA only LeBron has impressed me with maturity. Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O'Neal have both showed nothing but immaturity in all their seasons in the NBA.

Kobe Bryant...who in the fuck puts it upon themselves to self destruct an NBA championship caliber team for personal/selfish reasons?

Now look at the Lakers. The joke of the NBA.

Worst is how he cheated on his woman with some skank! If you are going to cheat, go for something awesome and not a piece of crap. Now he got his wife pregnant again.