RE: two more going pro

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

That's a good case you make Joe, and should be true, but
look at the last high-schoolers to make the leap.  They shouldn't
have been able to learn on the job, but they did.

Tracy McGrady -- top five player, MVP candidate
Kobe Bryant --  top five player, MVP candidate
KG -- top five player, MVP candidate
Jermaine O'Neal -- took a few years to develop, now a rising star at 5
Al Harrington -- still struggling, but showed enough promise to merit
trading Dale davis for him
Darius Miles -- Bound for Glory

and then there's all the guys that went after one year, like Stephon
Marbury.  I'm not saying that nobody should go to college, but I
just don't think players need three or four years to develop.  It helps
them a lot (just think of our own Antoine Walker's early years) but
it's not strictly necessary if you have the talent and you get the minutes.


Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent:	Tuesday, April 10, 2001 1:22 PM
> To:	OzerskyJA; celtics@igtc.com
> Subject:	Re: two more going pro
> 
> OzerskyJA wrote:
> 
> > I'm always amazed when guys don't come out.  How can you
> > forego certain riches, and take the chance of breaking your leg
> > or whatever?  And that's not even taking into account the way
> > guys stock tends to drop when they stay on (Shea Seals, John
> > Wallace, etc. etc.).  Brown should come out; he's a top five pick
> > if he does.  He's probably being intimidated by his mom or somebody.
> > Marcus is also some kind of nut, going on about how he wants his
> > degree.  Is he afraid of being denied tenure or something?
> 
>     To tell you the truth, I've always thought that basketball was a bit
> more
> akin to baseball and boxing....where career paths are orchestrated
> carefully by
> trainers/managers on the belief that an athlete's development rate can be
> ruined
> if they get rushed too fast to a level above their heads. It's not quite
> the
> same, but there are real similarities IMO.
> 
>     In basketball, confidence is everything in a player's decision to
> drive to
> the rim or create and take their own tough shot. I think any prospect
> actually
> needs and requires a lot of experience dominating the ball (including in a
> play-making role) at amateur levels, not least for the creative
> trial-and-error
> you would never dare experiment with if you go straight to playing against
> the
> world's best and in a hierarchy where there are established stars who are
> supposed to get the ball.
> 
>     Unless you have extreme, unshakeable confidence, a lot of years riding
> the
> pine or turning down scoring opportunities in the NBA can turn you into a
> stiffer, less aggressive player just as getting your fastball clobbered or
> getting decked by a veteran boxer can permanently mess with your
> mechanics,
> confidence and joy for the game. Look at how baseball handles minor league
> assignments. It makes so much sense in my opinion because it really is a
> mental
> game.
> 
>     Now it goes without saying that I'm crap as a baller, but I do know
> from
> experience that a moment's hestitation or flash of self-doubt makes all
> the
> difference in whether you can execute a cross-over, or take and make a
> shot
> against an equal ballplayer. I think you need a lot of actual experience
> dominating in order to later play as well as you are capable of against
> superior or equal players. The NBA has a lot of early entries who you look
> at
> years down the road and think "how did he get so tentative?" or "since
> when did
> he become so inept on offense?". It's not just talent, it's confidence.
> 
>     Every year in the NBA draft you get a Zach Randolph type case.
> Basically
> he's equivalent to a "phenom" in Double-A baseball, like say a Tony Blanco
> or
> Juan Diaz in the Red Sox system. Randolph was the dominant player bar none
> of
> the McDonald's All Star game. Last year was a transition year, and he
> surprisingly failed to win a starting job on a great college team or make
> any
> kind of statistical impact on the Big Ten. No big deal...he's still a
> great
> prospect. But the thing is next year he should definitely start at MSU and
> he'll
> likely dominate and hold the key in big, pressure games one after another.
> With
> that added experience, he might be ready to immediately step into an NBA
> starting lineup and deliver whupass, rather than risk riding the pine with
> nothing but millions of dollars to spend on corrupting himself and
> doubting
> himself. Maybe I'm just wacked out, but I'll bet years from now (or even
> today)
> a guy like Jerome Moiso or Donnell Harvey would gladly give back a year of
> NBA
> salary to have had a chance to help lead UCLA or Florida to a Final Four
> and
> develop their confidence and games further. College is so once in a
> lifetime....I imagine that's true especially if you get to participate in
> big
> sports tournaments etc. A guy like Jerome with his slick French accent
> must have
> met all the UCLA chicks for one thing, and these are not quite the skanky,
> money
> vultures you'll find hanging around NBA arenas and Made Men posses. (Back
> in
> college, my friends often kiddingly referred to UCLA as the "University of
> Caucasians Living among Asians"...I don't know if you've heard that
> particular
> one.)
> 
>     If you are severely retarded or something, then I can see how college
> life
> can be a trying experience and why there may be no point in staying. I
> also
> would understand if a player had parents and siblings who barely had
> enough
> income to survive even another year, or lived in housing conditions so
> dangerous
> and drug-addled that you would do anything to help them get them out of
> there
> immediately. If that's the case with Zach Randolph or Tyson Chandler, then
> go
> for it I say. To me it sounds like a classic quality-of-life sacrifice in
> exchange for financial security type of thing.
> 
> ****
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>