Stern and the NCAA forgot about Europe
June 22, 2008 by Kevin Hunter
Filed under Basketball
As we all know, NBA Commissioner David Stern ruled that he no longer wants high school players skipping college and flooding the NBA.
This is a good rule. It doesn’t go far enough in my opinion, but a great rule nonetheless.
But apparently that hasn’t stopped at least one player from looking at other ways to make money playing professional basketball.
Brandon Jennings is looking at the probability of skipping out of his letter of intent at the University of Arizona and playing in Europe.
Jennings’ mother Alice Knox has an attorney and is looking into the possibility of playing professionally in Europe while waiting to become eligible for the NBA Draft in 2009.
The 19-year-old Jennings, a 6-2, 170 pound point guard hails from Compton, CA and high school basketball power Dominguez High School in Compton, where he was named Freshman Player of the Year by the Long Beach Press-Telegram. He was most recently seen playing ball at ever popular Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, VA. He is rated as the top point guard in the nation in the class of 2008 by http://www.espn.com.
Jennings, who had originally committed to USC before changing his mind and signing with Arizona (kids change their minds a lot these days. Please see post below on College Recruiting Gone Mad), would be the first high United States high school basketball player who skip college and the NBA to play in Europe.
But according to www.espn.com, NBA executives said that teams in Europe aren’t designed to sign high school players and have a system for younger players to get to the primary club team. It was also reported that now that Jennings has an agent, European teams might be able to work something out.
If Jennings makes the jump to Europe, is successful, comes back and is drafted high in the NBA, rest assured you will see more high school players applying for visas in the coming years.
Photo: http://www.newscom.com
