In case you missed it yesterday, Latavious became the first player to jump straight from high school to the D-League as he was drafted by the Tulsa 66ers yesterday.
If you remember, back in July Williams announced that he would be backing out on his commitment to Memphis to try and latch on with a professional team overseas. But without the profile of a Brandon Jennings or even a Jeremy Tyler, Williams apparently could not find a willing suitor.
Latavious Williams was drafted by the D-League.(photo credit: dimemag)
So he took the next best option.
He went to the D-League.
Which, if you think about it, is exactly what the NBA wants.
Right?
Kids aren't allowed to go to the NBA straight from high school, but they are allowed to go to the D-League. Why? Because while there, they will be working with professional coaches teaching them how to make themselves the best professional players that they can be. They will be playing against other professionals, some of whom have or will be NBA players.
If he had went to college, Josh Pastner would have been training him to fit into the college game, into the style that he wants Williams and the Tigers to play. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is not the same as the nature of being a professional.
And don't try to tell me that you need to be a college player with some notoriety in the United States to be a successful pro. Milwaukee Bucks fans will probably tell you differently, as will the multitude of European players currently in the NBA.
So the question becomes how does this effect the college game?
Well, if Williams does, in fact, become a successful pro, maybe it will open up a pathway for high school kids to skip college. And if it does, is that really a bad thing? While it will no doubt take some of the talent out of the college basketball ranks, is taking the one-and-done guys that have no desire to be in college out of the college ranks really a bad thing?
Is reducing the amount of fake student-athletes and recruiting scandals at the collegiate level at the cost of a few stud freshman every year really that bad?
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3 comments:
I got his new motto: "Cash rules everything around me, CREAM, get the money, dolla dolla bill yo"
im confused. Does he realize college girls flock to bball players and probably think that the D-League is associated with the WNBA
lol tmachir is a hatin ass whitey. he didn't go to memphis cause he didn't have the grades or test scores to make it, nor would he ever. this is just the best next thing to developing in europe. he will be making $13,000 on a rookie contract in the d-league, this is not about money.
Definitely not about the money. Apparently, he had a deal on the table worth $100,000 in China, but he may not have ever made it to the league from China. This was probably his best option.
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