Why High School Basketball Players Should Not Go To College

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LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett. Tracy McGrady. Some of the NBA’s greatest stars, and they never attended college. The talent in high school basketball is rising. High school players play for AAU teams and compete all over the country against the top talent. No wonder they go to college for just one year and then leave to enter the draft. They have to talent and size to enter the draft right after they graduate. They should not have to go to college for one year to go to the NBA. It is a waste of a year for them, and there is just no point. High school basketball players should be able to enter the NBA draft immediately after graduation. First of all, some of the NBA’s biggest stars entered the NBA right after high school. Players …show more content…
The athlete may just be “simply not academically motivated”(Tellem 1). Most players will be making millions of dollars their first couple years in the NBA, so if they went to college they would see no point in receiving the education. They have practices and film every day, and having class and homework on top of that is just too much for an athlete. Coach Rick Pitino for Louisville said, “College is not for everybody… So if a kid doesn’t want to go to college, let him go to the pros. Let him go to the D-League”(Wise 1). Being at college is something a lot of people do not want to do, and it does not make sense to make athletes do it. They basically have a full time job that pays them millions of dollars, so getting a degree would not help them out very much. Also, there is a chance they could get hurt and destroy their career. Randy Livingston was a high school star but “bypassed the NBA for Louisiana State, sustained a serious leg injury and attracted only tepid interest”(Tellem 1). He ruined his career by going to college. He went from being a projected lottery pick, to a player who had to prove his abilities to earn a spot on an NBA roster. Many people choose to skip college, so basketball players should not be forced to go just because they want to enter the