Thursday, July 10, 2008

Prep hoops star skips college, heads to Europe for a year

So, the NCAA is broken, right? We can all agree on that now, can’t we?

Brandon Jennings, hoops experts say, was the most talented high-school basketball player in the country last year. Don't expect to see Jennings in the NCAA Tournament next March, though. On Tuesday, the player's lawyer announced that he'll prepare for the NBA by playing in Europe next year.

If Jennings sticks with his decision and makes his way to the top of the 2009 NBA draft, other high-school stars may follow his lead. The father of one of the most heralded players in the high-school class of 2009, Lance Stephenson, told the New York Times that the family was aware of Jennings' decision: "We're looking at it and we're interested just like anyone else." Let's conduct a thought experiment: If America's best prep players all decided to play abroad, what would happen to the global basketball ecosystem?

The Great Basketball Exodus

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