From Prep to Pro

The only sport that allowed players to go directly from the high school level to the pros was the NBA and it had it's pros and cons like any other rule or law. There were many players that came straight from high school to the NBA who had and are currently having outstanding careers. These players include LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Ervin "Magic" Johnson and many others who have their finger prints in the history books.

Brandon Jennings is the first American athlete to go from prep to the pros by way of Europe. Jennings believed that skipping his senior year of high school and playing in Europe would better prepare him to play in the NBA that playing in his senior year of high school and going to college. For Brandon it's not all fun and games in Italy, "the bed looks like it could be palmed by Shaq, the room is the size of a hummer, the hotel looks like a town house, and his room mates bunk is just a sneakers length away."

His reasons for going on his voyage to Europe is because he was unsure about his opportunity in college because of his low SAT scores made him ineligible at most colleges. But now that he is in the NBA his efforts brought him to be drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks and is on his way to becoming rookie of the year. Brandon Jennings is averaging over 20 points a game. The top players in the league like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony are averaging around 28 points a game.

There is now an age limit on which you can enter the NBA which makes it so that you cant go straight from high school to the NBA. This rule was created because of the numerous number of players that had come out of high school and did not have the illustrious careers that they hoped for and became NBA busts. These players include C.J. Miles, Ricky Sanchez, James Lang, Korleone Young, Ndudi Ebi, Kwame Brown, Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair, Jonathan Bender, and Leon Smith who proved to the NBA that they needed to add the age limit rule that we know today. Smith was just too immature for the NBA and clashed with coaches about his development and refused to go over seas to the NBDL. Then on November 14th he attempted suicide by swallowing 250 aspirin. He was then arrested twice during his rookie year, with one incident involving threatening a woman with a gun.