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Last night marked the 2008 NBA draft, and unlike in the years past, there wasn’t a true “all star” or sought after number one pick in this draft. Yes Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose are outstanding athletes, but Rose wasn’t even in consideration at this point last year. As for Beasley, he played in a weak conference and was ousted early in the NCAA tournament. One of the toughest choices for any player is whether to take the shot at the pros or not.
Here’s the deal. If you are not chosen in the first round, you are not guaranteed a contract. That’s right, you had better hope that you’re in the top 30 if you’re a big time player. The second round isn’t too bad, except for the fact you are no guaranteed a contract and might end up in the D-league or over in Europe.
There were only two underclassmen not drafted on Thursday night, Mississippi State junior Jarmont Gordon and USC freshman Davon Jefferson. Here they learned a tough lesson: the NBA’s not easy. Well, getting into it that is. The catch is that they had both hired agents, which voids their ability to return to the NCAA to play basketball. Now they must take the hard road, because this time next year they will be no-names searching for a job.
How can they do it? Work outs, work outs, work outs. They will have to push themselves to the limit and hope that one team out there will want to take the risk on them. At best, they will be sitting the bench in the NBA making money. But far better, in my opinion, is the Euro league where players rack in $200K a year. Some of my favorite Tar Heels have went on to be great Euro players. For instance, Dante Calabria and Rayshaun Terry are ’stars’ in their leagues, and my personal favorite, David Noel is heading there next season. It’s a good life, and you get paid to play in beautiful European cities. Terry currently resides in Rome.
So even though they weren’t chose, keep your head up boys . . . better days will come.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Sport., Terry played in Athens, Greece, last season. He’s working out with the Dallas Mavs and will attend their training camp. Why would he reside in Rome? — Bob J.