Watching Juwann McClelland tonite I got into a debate with my friend about high school kids going to the NBA. I said why risk getting injured in college when you could atleast collect a rookie contract from the NBA (assuming they would be drafted high enough to get a guarnteed contract). He said" name one player that got injuries in college that kept him from getting an NBA payday" . Dang it I couldn't. I thought Chris Owens but he said no and he is from Austin and is a big UT hoops fan. So anybody got an example I can pull out on him tomorrow?
Good topic, I agree with you about going straight to the NBA. I you are certain that you will be a top 15 pick or so its worth it even if you only last as long as your rookie contract. You could also get a few more years of teams paying for potential. If this money is save and not pissed away you would be set for life. I cant think of many examples because i dont really follow college BB. If they dont make it to the NBA i likely will have no idea who they are. The only one that i can think of is Tyis Edney (sp?) He was a great college player and got hurt, i think in the NCAA tournament, and was never the same after it.
From what I understand, you can get coverage for this from Lloyds. If you can show that you are good enough, they may even defer the payments until after you make the pro's.
I'm sure there have been college injuries that have cost players big NBA money, but for the life of me, I cannot think of an example in basketball of a player who made a tough decision to go to, or back to college, and then suffered an injury that cost them serious draft status. There have been some that have cost themselves draft status with their play - but I can't think of an injury.
Len Bias... well he got drafted, damn this is hard. umm...its hard because they never made it to the league, and never made a name for themselves.
I know Randy Livingston was supposed to be an even better PG than Kidd but blew out his ACL while at LSU. However, I don't know if he ever actually succeeded at the college level (the injury occurred pretty early if I remember right).
what about Chris Marcus? People were talking about him being the #1 overall pick if he had stayed in the draft after his junior year and then he went back to Western Kentucky and got hurt and went undrafted. He signed a one year guaranteed free agent contract in September 03 and then got waived six weeks later. So I guess he did make at least $300k from the league but he could have been a lottery pick if he came out. although i guess it's good he withdrew his name or Rudy & Carroll might have taken him with the #1 pick instead of Yao Ming!
I can' think of too many high school kids who have gotten injured. There was a kid (Ben Somebody?) in Chicago who got shot and killed before he even had a chance to get to college. Landon Turner got paralyzed in an auto accident before he could turn pro. There was a kid at the UofH named Jeff Hickman (back in the 70s) who was a terrific shooting guard. He had a knee injury. Back then they couldn't fix them like they can now. He never made it in the pros. Also, UH had a power forward named Melvin Bell who had a knee problem. He was a dominating college player when he started his career but ended up limping.
Actually the discussion got started about Lamarcus Aldridge and the fact that we watched several games with Chris Bosch who went to college and Kendrick Perkins who didn't. I said if LaMarcus will be a top 13 pick why should he risk injury for even one year at Texas. He should take the NBA money , be set for life, get NBA coaching and practice against NBA players even if he rides the pine for 2 years. But apparently the injury chances are slim.
