Wall's recruiting camp should draft another plan

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Wall's recruiting camp should draft another plan


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] John Wall must try to enter the NBA Draft. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] That's not an opinion but a request to all who insist they care about the 19-year-old phenom, to the men and women who swear they have Wall's best interests at heart. If the nation's top-rated high school point guard can get in June's draft, he's good enough to be selected as high as second and marketable enough to receive sizable endorsement contracts, all of which could easily total 15 million guaranteed dollars (and perhaps much, much more). By my estimation, that's a lot of money. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] So the people who claim to want what's best for Wall should acknowledge as much and convince him to declare for the draft before Sunday's deadline. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] If the NBA rejects Wall's application, fine, he can go to college. [/FONT]
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Coaches everywhere are champing at the bit to get John Wall, likely including some in the NBA. (AP) [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] I'd love to write about him all next season, if I must. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] But there seems to be a loophole in the rules that might allow Wall to enter the draft if he wants because he's about to conclude a fifth year of high school. Some believe the NBA couldn't legally deny Wall's request to be in the draft; others aren't sure. Either way, the one thing that's clear is that the statute is vague, and to not at least make the NBA rule on Wall's situation would be irresponsible bordering on reckless given the amount of money involved. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "If he wants to help my family, he should come back. If he wants to help his family, he should go."
[SIZE=+1]?
Former Memphis coach John Calipari on Derrick Rose [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "If he's going to be picked where everyone has him being picked, it definitely is in his best interest to go pro."
[SIZE=+1]?
Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel on Blake Griffin [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Calipari and Capel used different words but basically said the same thing when addressing situations similar to Wall's, that when prospects are in a position to take the kind of money that's available to top picks, they must do so. I agree. Furthermore, there's a story Calipari routinely tells about how he once ripped up Dajuan Wagner's scholarship papers and informed him he no longer had the option of college basketball once Calipari learned Wagner would be picked no worse than sixth in the 2002 NBA Draft. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Assuming that story is true, I must ask: What's the difference here? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Shouldn't Calipari or any responsible coach recruiting Wall pull him aside and say, "Look, son, I would love to coach you if the NBA says you have to come to college for a year. But what you need to do for your family is apply for the draft and see if you can get in, and if they'll let you in then you need to go because you are a guaranteed top five pick. You can't pass that up." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Again, multiple NBA sources insist Wall could go as high as second in this draft (and no worse than fifth), and industry sources believe he would get the richest shoe contract of any pick because flashy guards tend to lure endorsements at a greater rate than forwards or centers. In other words, there are literally millions and millions of dollars on the table right now, and no sensible reason for Wall not to take them if the NBA will allow him in this draft. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] And no, he doesn't need a year of college to develop. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] That's plainly ridiculous. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Despite what some uninformed people try to tell you, there is no evidence that suggests prospects develop at a better rate in college than they do in the NBA. In fact, history suggests prospects like Wall (i.e., high school players good enough to be lottery picks) are virtually guaranteed success -- proof being how the high school players who were selected in the lottery from 1995 until the age limit was implemented became some of the best players in the world with almost no busts among them. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] In total, there were 18 lottery picks used on high school prospects during that stretch. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] One was Kobe Bryant. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Another was LeBron James. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Another was Kevin Garnett. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Another was Tracy McGrady. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Another was Dwight Howard. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Another was Amare Stoudemire. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Those are six of the very best players of this era, and 11 of the other 12 high school lottery picks are still in the NBA making millions. The only high school lottery pick completely out of the NBA is Jonathan Bender, who had to retire because of chronic knee pain. The biggest so-called bust of the group is Kwame Brown, who has made more than $42 million to date as a professional. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] (We should all be lucky enough to bust, shouldn't we?) [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Bottom line, there is nothing safer than a high school lottery pick. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] It's safe for the team drafting and the player being drafted. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] And that's why the people advising Wall (like Brian Clifton, the former agent turned AAU coach) are foolish to not advise Wall to at least try to enter the draft. That, or they have ulterior motives and need him to go to college -- perhaps even a specific college -- for a year for some reason that is unclear (but feel free to speculate as you wish). There is no in-between. Clifton and the people of influence are either foolish or they have some vested interest in Wall enrolling in college. Nobody will convince me otherwise, and forgive me for rolling my eyes at the official rationale coming from Wall's camp, that the North Carolina native wants to go to college because he promised his late father he would. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] It's a sweet story, sure. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] But Wall's father died when Wall was less than 10 years old, and, needless to say, things have changed since then. The options at that point were the same options most kids have -- to go to college or not go to college. Given those choices, every father would want his son to go to college, might even make his son promise to do so. But when presented with the option of enrolling in college or taking millions of guaranteed dollars to play professional basketball (or write books or work on computers or whatever), I suspect most fathers would choose the latter. Either way, nobody is pretending Wall will spend more than a year in college, so is that really the promise Wall is trying to make good on, that he'll pass 24 credit hours before moving on with his life sans a degree? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] With all due respect, it's just silly. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Though I never met Wall's father and couldn't pretend to guess what he would think now, I can, as the father of a young son, tell you what would make me proud if I happened to die next week, thus leaving my son to navigate through his teenage years without me. It would make me proud if my son took care of his mother as best he could, if he didn't let hangers-on take advantage of him, if he made wise decisions about his future and fully explored any opportunity to make $15 million or $25 million or god-knows-how-much money the moment he realized such an opportunity might exist. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] That's what I would want for my son. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] And that's what anybody who truly cares about John Wall should want for him, too. [/FONT]
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11653116

i totally agree with this.I mean, he told his dad before he died(when he was 9 i believe)that he'd go to college; but did he mean for 1 year?
he should enter and then apply to nyu next year.:peace:

though i believe that rubio is savvier at the moment, you'd have to be a fool to pass on a kid who could be a hybrid of rondo and rose.
remember the d'antoni lotto face; the b ball gods owe us.
give us wall.
 
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