Point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who was considered the best prospect at his position in the Class of 2014, has opted to play professionally in China and will reportedly sign a one-year deal to play in that basketball crazed country before declaring for the NBA draft.
Mudiay, a 6-5 point guard from Prime Prep in Dallas, will earn $1.2 million in China, according to reports. He will suit up for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the China Basketball Association.
Mudiaym, who was born in the Congo and played for the internatonal side in the Nike Hoop Summit, is a dominant player who could go Top 3 in the 2015 NBA Draft. He will follow in the footsteps of Brandon Jennings, the current Detroit Pistons guard who opted to play a year of professional basketball in Italy rather than play a year of college basketball at Arizona.
Mudiay signed with SMU last fall, choosing the Mustangs over Kentucky and Kansas. If he had attended school there, Larry Brown’s team would have a potential Top 10 team. But Mudiay had a sudden change of heart earlier this month, leading to speculation he might have problems with eligibility. There had been earlier speculation Mudiay’s problems might stem from academics because of the two years he spent at at Prme Prep, a private academy that reportedly had his charter pulled by the state of Texas due to co-founder DL Wallace’s involvement in corruption scandals that include, “Missing money, improper payments, poor building conditions, poor academics, and missing (if not stolen) laptops computers.”
But sources told ESPN the NCAA is concerned about amatuerism issues.
Mudiay’s decision could drive other propsects to take a closer look at playing overseas if the money is right rather than spend a year in college before entering the draft.
