by Todd Pheifer

Created on: May 20, 2009

More than probably any other professional sports league, the National Basketball Association (NBA) provides an opportunity for young players to play right away. Baseball has its minor leagues, and while the NFL plays some rookies early, there are some players that do not get regular playing time for a couple of years. The NBA is all about the next great player, and because poor teams draft the "hottest" young prospects, there is a good chance they will start playing rather quickly. For the high school player, this means that if they are a "star" in the making, they might be in the NBA in a short period of time. Here are a few thoughts on what the NBA draft has done to the behavior and attitudes of high school basketball players.

Ready to play

As mentioned, high school players look at the draft and imagine themselves walking across the stage to put on their new team's cap. There are just enough high school players that went straight to the NBA and were successful, that any current player has the potential to think that they could do it too. Of course, the NBA did change the rules in recent years and high school graduates cannot go straight to the NBA. This has changed the face of college basketball, but only slightly.

One and done

Since high school players cannot go straight to the draft, they will go to college, but sometimes they will only do their obligatory single year of service. For those players, the college experience is simply a roadblock on their way to the NBA. While purist fans will lament this degradation of the college game, it is the reality of a sport where young people can literally earn millions of dollars without a college degree.

Playing ball overseas

Of course, some players do not want to hassle with college, but they still can't go to the NBA until they are old enough. Therefore, a few players have opted to go overseas and play for foreign teams for a year before entering the NBA draft. Whether this becomes a regular trend is anyone's guess. Again, this is a situation where players don't have any intention of staying where they are for long. They want to play professionally but because of the rules, they will "play the game" and go through the steps.

Overall, the NBA draft has represented a gold mine for many years now. Though there are very few players who actually make it, there are plenty of high school players that dream of fame, stardom, and riches. Because of the media attention given to the draft, there will always be players that watch the event and tell themselves that they too could be there someday.

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