College basketball is one of the most popular sports in the United States today. It is looked at as a pure form of the game and the national championship of college basketball is revered by many and a lifetime goal for some. Despite this reverence of the sport at that level, there has been a disturbing abuse of college basketball progressing over the past few years. More and more players today are using college basketball not as a time to perfect their abilities in the sport, but instead to use it as a springboard to the pros. College basketball players have been abandoning their education in return for a sink or swim shot at the pros. This trend is undermining the true mission of a university and causing distress in the lives of many young athletes. To best illustrate how this trend of leaving college early, or forgoing it entirely, has gained popularity over throughout the decade, we will look at some statistics. In the 1998 NBA draft, there were 33 underclassmen available for the draft. Of those 33, there were nineteen juniors, five sophomores, two freshmen, and four high school students. If you think that 33 is high for the number of early entries into the draft, look at the figure for 1997, this was 40! In the 1996 draft, only two of the top fifteen picks graduated from college. Not to mention that only fifteen of the 29 that came out early in '96 were actually selected in the draft. Now, with all the talk about how college is the time where players truly develop their skills and get themselves ready both mentally and physically for the demands of playing on a professional game. Being in the NBA is no walk in the park by far. Many very capable basketball players out there do not have jobs. That is not because of the influx of young, new talent. It is because the NBA is a league of not just talented basketball players, but instead the best basketball players around. Aspiring pros need to know that the millions ...
