High school basketball players: Europe vs. College

[BCWWF]

Last year Brandon Jennings elected to go to Europe instead of Arizona (I think), now a guy is leaving after his junior year of high school to play two years pro in Spain.

Technically I think there were some issues about whether Jennings would even be eligible, which I'm sure played a role in it, but nonetheless this does seem to be the early stages of a trend starting.

What do you think? It sounds kind of crazy, but really it's not too much unlike the academy system in soccer, where young players go and train with professional teams from an early age. My biggest hope is that this new guy at least gets his high school diploma in some way though.

I don't think the college game will ever disappear, even if a decent amount of kids elects to do something like this in the future. But it is kind of a tricky subject to form an opinion on.

[The Gold Standard]

I remember when Josh Childress went to Europe, they did a special on ESPN with him and he said that even though the money was not the same, a lot less, it was very easy to be a celebrity there.

It seems like the trend will be post college go to Europe, not High School, especially if the player is going to school at a top basketball school.

So, it could be a trend that could start, but I hope not, I like to see these good players go through college.

[BCWWF]

I don't think there will be a time very soon when all of the top players will skip college. And even if the best of the best at some point do, you still will have the big college stars like Tyler Hansbrough right now.

But I wouldn't be surprised if there does become more of a European route for these guys. Especially with the new rule so you can't go right into the draft.

Overall though, I think the NBA is going to need to re-think its total format. It is getting to the point where the NBA is going to need to decide if it wants to be the biggest of many leagues around the world and continue on the path of world soccer, or if it wants to be the elite league in the world that everybody else caters to.

It seems obvious that the NBA would lean toward option No. 2, but to do that they are going to need to set up a working relationship with the European clubs. They are going to need set up a system where the NBA can claim the rights to young talent and then loan them off to European teams until they are NBA ready.

Right now, the NBA teams are forced to take a risk on young players who aren't ready, and that just lowers the overall talent level in the league and takes away from a more deserving veteran.

I could talk about this all day.