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Boom went the dynamite on Saturday night as Milwaukee Bucks rookie point guard Brandon Jennings exploded for 55 points on 21 of 34 shooting (7-for-8 from three) against the hapless Golden State Warriors.
Jennings had been the subject of much skepticism entering the NBA Draft after his decision to play professional basketball in Europe in lieu of attending college. His first seven games in the NBA have erased any and all doubts skeptics may have had.
With his 55-point outburst, Jennings is now scoring 25.4 points per game — 8th in the entire league — to go with 5.1 assists and 4.4 rebounds. More importantly, he has the Bucks off to a 5-2 start. Jennings is a pioneer in the NBA’s new-as-of 2006 draft process that mandates players be one year removed from high school before they are allowed to enter.
David Stern and the NBA’s public relations staff will tell you the rules were instituted to give players a shot at an education and to help them make sure they are ready to enter the league. In reality though, the rule is just a revenue-stimulating device for the NBA and college basketball. By forcing players to go to college they are putting talent back into college basketball—if only for a year at a time—and giving fans an opportunity to “get to know” the players before they enter the league.
I am not arguing those are malevolent goals, but they are self-serving, and luckily Brandon Jennings has discovered a loophole. Players with his level of talent know definitively that education is going to be incidental rather than instrumental to their careers. It should be their choice if they want to pursue an education just as it should be a genius mathematician’s choice if he wants to pursue athletics. By funneling players into college instead of letting them turn pro, the NBA is effectively putting them on probation from maximizing their earning potential.
What if these players injure themselves before they even get a chance to play in the league? What if the college system represses the player’s abilities? And what about disadvantaged inner-city kids who need that money to provide for their family? The NBA doesn’t have any answers to these questions, but Brandon Jennings does. The $1.65 million contract he signed to play professionally for Lottomatica Roma for the 2008-2009 season was a certificate that not only he was free from the NBA’s self-serving draft structure, but that all players are not slave to the NBA’s agenda.
Go for two and the win?
I recently went to the Eastern Maine Class C Football championship game to watch my alma mater, the John Bapst Crusaders, take on the Foxcroft Academy Ponies. The game featured two high-powered offenses but degenerated into a defensive battle played mostly between the 40-yard lines on a slick field.
In the game’s final minutes, John Bapst found themselves in need of a miracle after a failed fourth down conversion gave the Ponies the ball and a 7-point lead on their own 25-yard line. Three plays later, with the clock nearing the one minute, mark they got that miracle when a fumble by Foxcroft running back Ian Champeon was recovered by the Crusaders at the Ponies 15. John Bapst got into the end zone with 59 seconds remaining on the clock and a chance to tie or take the lead with a two-point conversion.
As I sat in the alumni club seating section (leaned against a fence in the rain) it seemed to me the only logical option John Bapst had was to go for two and the win. There is simply no way, I reasoned, that you can place the fate of a game of this magnitude in the hands (or foot) of a high school kicker. Especially not when you have Bill Wetherbee, not only the best running back in the conference but also the best player. Besides, he already rushed for 162 yards in the game.
So when the coaching staff bafflingly, blunderingly sent out the field goal unit, I began to think this decision would be a mistake at any level of football—collegiate, high school, pro or Pop Warner. And as I watched the extra point sail wide and the Foxcroft fans begin to celebrate, I resigned myself to think when you have a chance to go for the jugular, you should always take it.
Why give your opponent a chance to claw back into the game when you can end it in one decisive blow? And in the NFL, why let victory be decided by a coin toss when you have a chance to control your own destiny?
At least that way, no matter the outcome, a coach can look at his players after the game and say, “We gave it our best shot.” But all John Bapst coach can say to Wetherbee, a four-year starter and senior captain, and the rest of his team is, “Sorry I didn’t give you your shot.”
