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.