Dick Weiss on College Basketball
Dick Weiss on College Basketball
SAN ANTONIO– The big news in college basketball yesterday came when Darius Bazley, a 17-year old, 6-9 McDonald’s All America forward from Princeton High in Cincinnati who has been projected as a Top 10 pick in the 2019 draft, decided to decommit from Syracuse, skip his freshman college all together and go to the G-League where he will play for a season before.he is eligible for the NBA draft. No details have been released about compensation but Bazley is likely to earn somewhere between $75,000, though the money would be as low at $26,000.
Bazley made the decision after conversations with his mother Lynitta, close family members and Princeton High coach Steve Wright. He is believed to be the first high school senior to skip college to play in the NBA’s development league.
“This is a life changing decision,” Bazley told Yahoo! Sports. “The G-League is the closest to the NBA and I believe I will get more out of it than going overseas. That are are a lot of successful guys who have been brought up in the G-League and I believe I’m one of them.”
Bazley has talent. He scored 11 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had two assists in the McDonald’s game, flashing the potential to be a dynamic play maker. He will also participate in the Nike Hoop Summit and the Jordan Brand All America game.
His decision could be a sign of the times as players attempt get paid directly out of high school.
Interestingly this isn’t the type of money that would usually motivate a young athlete particularly when Bazley could earn far more by playing in China, Italy, Israel or even Australia. The difference is Bazley will ensure he will be seen by all of the NBA’s top scouts. Bazley is eligible to play in the G-League because he will turn 18 before the October draft and can sign an official contract with the league in September.
In effect, Bazley is betting on himself, gambling if he has a huge year in the NBA’s development league, his NBA stock will soar. If not, he would become a G-League lifer, playing for a minimum wage. There is also this: Because Bazley will be gone in a year, there is little incentive for a team in the G-League, who only has ownership in him for just one season, to develop his game.
Kansas coach Bill Self had some pretty strong opinions on the topic in his Final Four press conference here yesterday.
“For whatever reason,” he said. “there’s this stigma that kids that are terrific players don’t really want to go to school,” he said. “Kids that are highly rated, they’re just using school as a stepping stone to the league and don’t even unpack their bags to get to get where they want to go.
“My personal opinion, I mean there’s a lot of kids out there that go to college that go to college and the only reason they do is because their parents push them to go to school. Kids mature. Kids change. We’ve recruited one-and-done guys who stayed for four years. We’ve recruited four-year guys who have been one-and-dones. I don’t understand why we just can;t play it out and let the individual do what is best for themselves and their families as opposed to everybody else trying to dictate what’s best.
“I do believe kids should be able to go to the draft out of high school. I don’t believe they should be able to go to the G-League out of high school. To me, putting themselves in a situation in the G-League where they’re not eligible to be an NBA player, there will be a percentage of kids that make that decision– whether it be for academic reasons or not– that will never experience being an NBA player. And then what do they have when it’s gone?
“Do you go overseas? What degree do you have to fall back on or any education of things like that? So college is good. College has done so much for so many. And you don;t have to look at four-year guys to believe college is good. Malik Newman is a prime example.”
Newman was considered the best all around guard and a one-and-done coming out of high school in 2015 when he averaged 29 points for Calloway High in Jackson, Miss. He initially signed with Mississippi State but had a sub par freshman year by his standards and wound up transferring to Kansas, where he sat out a year and is just now coming into his own after three years as a red shirt sophomore. Newman has been on fire for the last seven games, scoring a career high 32 points in the Jayhawks’ 85-81 overtime victory over Duke in the Midwest Region finals in Omaha.
“There’s a lot of kids out that that are really talented that aren’t ready and college provides them with an opportunity to mature,” Self said. “And to be honest with you, if they can;t mature and become ready in college, then all you have done is put them in a situation where you gave them an opportunity because if they weren’t ready in college, they certainly weren’t ready when they’re 17 or 18 years old.”
