None-and-Done: Why the NBA Needs to Let Preps Go Pro Again

The moment Kentucky won the NCAA crown, plenty of critics of the "one-and-done" voiced their displeasure with how the Wildcats recruitted a bunch of kids who were likely only going to play one year in college (thanks to the NBA's rule requiring high schoolers to wait a year to join the NBA*). I imagine that some of these people don't watch college basketball all that closely. I have a few problems with the one-and-done rule, but they're not the same as everyone elses.

*Most players will go to college for a year, but can opt to play overseas for a year - Brandon Jennings did this in 2008-09 before playing for the Milwaukee Bucks

My view is that the NBA should not be able to put any rule on someone going to college, especially when it's a kid who has clear NBA talent right out of high school (i.e. LeBron).

1. Other sports allow high school kids to get drafted. While the NFL requires players to be three years removed from high school to be draft-eligible, the MLB & NHL allow high school kids to be drafted in their amateur drafts. Each team may have its own views on drafting high schoolers (some may prefer high schoolers for their "upside" while others may prefer college kids' experience, who are a little more battle-tested after facing (and presumably dominating) peers of amateur status). Just because a team has the opportunity to draft a high schooler doesn't mean they have to.
   
   The main reason the NFL has a three-year wait is the size and speed of its athletes, who are clearly superior to their 18-19 year old counterparts and need those 3 years to develop into NFL-type bodies. While there is a learning curve for the NBA that one can gain from college experience, I don't think college is necessary for high school players who have NBA talent. Teams who draft high schoolers could also send them to the NBA Developmental League, their version of the minor league systems that hockey and baseball employ.
   
   Somewhat of an aside, but why isn't there an uproar every year about these sports above when it comes to no college/little college experience? I don't know if race is a small part of it, but it could be. Is it because we care more about college basketball as a country than college baseball and college hockey? Perhaps. If anyone has a reason for this (or a reason for your own hatred of one-and-done college basketball), please let me know.
2. The NBA has overblown the "high school kids fail" angle. Before Kevin Garnett started the wave of high school players being drafted by NBA teams, not too many players took that leap. Instead, many found 3-4 years of college to be a great preparation opportunity for the pros. Once he made the leap, other top high school players said, "Why not me?"
   
   After Garnett (1995 draft), there have been 38 players who went straight from high school to the pros (source: Wiki). Out of those 38, eight of them have made an All-Star Game (Kobe, Jermaine O'Neal, McGrady, Rashard Lewis, Amare, LeBron, Dwight Howard & Andrew Bynum). Of the remaining 30, there have been some solid players (Al Harrington, Tyson Chandler, Kendrick Perkins, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, JR Smith, Monta Ellis). Some may think others on the list are solid contributors, too. If you're just to use the list of people I mentioned, that's 15 of 38 legitimate pros that went from prep-to-pro. Not a bad ratio if you ask me.
   
   I don't want to hear the BS that GMs have made too many mistakes on high school kids. Guess what? They also make horrible draft choices on guys who actually have gone to college. Michael Olowokandi anyone?  How well did Adam Morrison's three years at Gonzaga help the Bobcats analyze his skill set? Same for Hasheem Thabeet and the Grizzlies. Fact is: drafts are inexact sciences for every sport. For every Kobe Bryant, there's two Leon Smiths. If you don't know much about Smith, I might suggest looking him up. Talk about a waste of talent.
3. The NBA's one-year wait disturbs the college experience. If you make a kid who knows he will be a professional basketball player in one year go to school against his will, do you really think he's gives a rat's ass about his scholarly experience? (Note, this is all just opinion - I have no facts to back this up - just trying to get into the mind of one of these players). Do you think that he is going to show up for all of his classes and get a 3.8 GPA, only to leave for the NBA after one year?
   
   More power to the guys who do this, but I imagine those guys are among the small percentage of those who go out of their way to care about their education for that 9 month period. Why should money be wasted on that kid's "scholarship" when everyone knows he is just there for basketball and for one year? Why don't we just cut the crap and say these kids are there just to play basketball (you know, like the NBA)? If a kid wants to miss out on a college experience, it's their loss. But it should also be their choice. If you make a kid go to school and go to class, don't you think he has a greater chance of being a distraction than the average student?
4. We live in a free society (allegedly). Let's act like it. It's quite the general statement, but we live in a country that preaches freedom of choice. This includes the right to choose to go to college or not. If you present the plusses of going to college to a stud player and he still doesn't want to go, then screw it - let him make his own choice. If his NBA career becomes a failure at that point, then it's his problem to deal with.

I don't think making kids stay in college longer (some people suggest 2 years of college should be mandatory) should be an answer. Forcing them to stay there a year longer, when most of them I(i.e. the talented preps who want to go pro ASAP) probably don't even want to be there for one year,  doesn't make sense.

One of the best alternative solutions I saw was on a post from my friend Nick, which suggested teams who draft high school players owning the rights to a player, while allowing the player to play college ball. Here's the link to it - it makes sense.

I don't know if they'll ever change the one-and-done rule in college basketball, but if they do, I hope they change it back to the none-and-done, where high schoolers have the right to explore their careers. If one of the main points of college is to figure out your career, then what would be the point of these kids (who know what they want to do) going to school for two semesters?