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Since the NBA raised the draft age to 19, top high school prospects are contemplating going overseas to begin their professional basketball careers. The NBA's hope was to encourage kids to go to college, get a year of NCAA basketball under their belt, mature a little bit and be better prepared for the pro game. While a lot of kids followed suit, Brandon Jennings made headlines last year when he chose to forgo college and head to Rome to play for Italian pro team Lottomatica Roma. Although he struggled in his lone season there, he earned a $1.65 million salary, plus a $2 million endorsement contract with Under Armour.
Jennings entered the 2009 NBA draft and was picked 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. During the first three weeks of the NBA season, the guard has averaged 18 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds per game, with rookie of the year talk all around. In Jennings' case, the idea of skipping college, playing overseas and then coming back to play in the NBA was a success. His family is taken care of and his dreams are coming true.
But that's doesn't seem to be the case for Jeremy Tyler.
Earlier this year, Tyler and his family tried to do one better than Jennings and skip the last year of high school, head overseas and turn pro. Tyler signed a $140,000 deal to play with Israeli team Maccabi Haifa, with the hope of entering the NBA draft in 2011.
At 6-foot-11 and 258 pounds, Tyler already has the body of a professional player, but mentally, the teenager isn't ready. A New York Times feature story revealed that Tyler is having a difficult time adjusting to overseas play, taking instruction from his coaches and getting along with teammates.
In high school, Tyler was a star player, contributing 28.7 points a game. The world may have revolved around him then, but now that he's playing in the big leagues, he's learning that not everyone is impressed.
According to the New York Times:
His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team.
Tyler is too immature and naïve to be a professional basketball player.
"The question is whether he'll take responsibility of his career," Haifa coach Avi Ashkenazi told the Times. "If he thinks he's going to be in the NBA because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be."
Former NBA player Olden Polynice worked with Tyler in high school and told the paper the young center is being "pimped." Polynice wouldn't elaborate, but Tyler's relationships with his father, a trainer who was offered money from an agent looking to sign his son; his girlfriend, Erin Wright (who is Eazy E's daughter); her mother; and others are strained.
Could it be that family and friends are seeing him as a way out or a lottery ticket, and he's feeling the pressure? That kind of pressure on a teenager could be detrimental to his maturation and, ultimately, his career.
"If you take me from when I first got off the plane," Tyler told the New York Times. "I have changed and developed and matured so much."
Hopefully, for his sake, he'll sort his life out and get back on his game. But if he's unsuccessful, what can he look forward to? What's a young black man without a high school diploma to fall back on? What type of life can he really expect to have if this NBA gig doesn't work out?
His future could easily turn out like so many black men, who, even if they wanted to put their best foot forward, have the stakes doubly stacked against them without a formal education. It's great that Jennings propelled himself into a lucrative career in the NBA. There are hundreds of black young males, though, who aren't so lucky. Many see their NBA dreams quickly dashed.
I understand why Tyler's family depends on him, but he had better depend on himself. Tyler needs to shape up and take his life seriously. There are too many people who realize their time has passed before they even had a chance to make something happen.
Comments: (13)
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By: INSANDIEGO on 11/10/2009 11:42PM
This is nothing new. This is the way he acted when he played high school ball. He was obnoxious on the court and off. Rude to his teammates..no respect for anyone. The normal calls the ref would make on other players were, i guess, not seen when Jeremy would do the same things. I blame this very bad decision on his dad and his coaches at San Diego High. When they played ball in L.A Jeremy didn't average 27 points because he had competition...something he didnt have alot of in San Diego because he was the biggest and tallest player in the city. I knew he wouldn't make it there. His only skill was getting the ball and dunking...if he is held to the outside he does not have a shot and cries to the refs that he is being fouled when he is not...someone is just putting some "D" on his behind. He didn't listen to the coaches in high school either...that's where his lack of basic bball skills comes in at. So...all of this is not surprising. I really feel sorry for this kid. Only he can turn this around.
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By: Raymond on 11/11/2009 12:39AM
Here we go again. Eazy-E's daughter goes with this kid? oh oh. It's a wrap. Young black dropout can't find a job. I hope he makes it in the NBA so he won't have to be a rapper.
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By: D on 11/11/2009 6:09PM
This is sad. It sounds like everybody involved is pimping this child. And it's also very obvious that no matter how talented he is, he is still VERY much a child. I hope for his sake, somebody decides to put his long-term well-being above the short-term monetary gains. Or he'll end up like Earl the Pearl.
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By: D on 11/11/2009 6:11PM
Oops meant Earl "The Goat" Manigault..
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By: Mary on 11/12/2009 9:05PM
This young man is a train wreck waiting to happen. Jesus....take the wheel.
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By: skeet on 11/11/2009 7:01PM
This is a sad story.
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By: Kenyatta Graham on 11/11/2009 8:04PM
One problem of paramount importance within the black community is an egregious lack of fathers! Black athletes that have "made it" can do an immeasurable amount of good in our communities by using their God given talents to acquire the highest salaries possible.Even in todays economic conditions anyone can live quite good on one to three million dollars.If one receives a contract that pays multi-millions of dollars,then any excess over one to three million can be contributed to the education of fatherless boys and girls in the ghettos of America.Here is one way that this may work.Say I negotiate a contract for 30 million for so many years. Good. But what I do is stipulate that 25 million of that salary be directed towards a nonprofit organization that I and other professional atheletes have started.Now what we are doing is to take that money from me and others of our consortium and purchase vacant multi storied bldgs that will be renovated into multifunctional bldgs,i.e.,classrooms,laboratories,etc. The goal is to stop the free fall and capture and save subsequent generations of black youth and direct their minds towards higher education and personal responsibility.The public school system has become a colossalfailuren the black community! Black people must not get into a mindset of "us against them" for that would be counter productive,but we must begin to take advantage of the blessings that we have received and capitalize on those blessings. In short what those black atheletes would be doing is to provide many black youth with father figures which I believe would break the cycle of prison induction and recidivism so prominent within our communities.Our children would begin to see that someone really cares. Someone from their own sphere of being.Someone who gives them a sense of "can-do".That its not just about athletics but its also about science and mathematics and astronomy and physics.We need to wake up to reality! We were given atheletic ability as a way to command exorbitant amounts of money in order to pool our minds and resources in order to pull ourselves out of the ghettos AS A PEOPLE!!! The God of heaven never meant for us to take the abilities he gave to various ones of us to selfishly enjoy the benefits of those various blessings.We must get away from this attitude of "victimhood". Nothing could be further from the truth.We black folk are not hurting.At least not as much as some of us would have the world to beleive. In 2003 a study was done and it was discovered that the earned income of blacks here in America was $656 BILLION!Listen my brothers and sisters if we were in our own country this amount of money would have placed us as the 16th largest economy IN THE WORLD!! We would have replaced Australia,okay!? But I don't claim to know it all,its just an idea.
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By: feelgood on 11/11/2009 8:11PM
I dont blame the kid, not when his stupid ass parents are there and allowing/condoning his actions. Only niggers think they can make it without going to school. Ice Cube wrote a song about it 2 years ago called the "Hood Mentality"!!
I guess we have to be thankful for the NBA, cause if not for the leauge where would some of these kids be?
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By: lisa on 11/11/2009 8:46PM
Why his parents allowed this to happen is beyond me. What kind of ignorant asses are they? $140,000 is not a lot of money and now this kid is stuck in a strange country with even stranger people and he is not adjusting well at all. Are the people guiding him on drugs? None of this makes sense to me. That poor kid needs serious prayer.
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By: ((( HiRoader ))) on 11/11/2009 11:26PM
At 1st I would have agreed with most and said NO!. to the skipped high school & college progressions towards the professional levels.. UNTIL you realize that there are Arm Forces recruiters going into the high schools so kids can sacrifice life & limb for politics & profits they know nothing about... It's just a game!!!
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