Inflated Hoop Dreams

"Some people's heads are so big, they don't have dreams, they have motion pictures."- Anonymous

With the drafting of O.J. Mayo, the top 3 draft picks all being freshmen and the saga of Brandon Jennings, the culture of high school and AAU basketball and the pampering of the players.

Mayo has come under fire recently for alledgedly taking benefits during his lone season at USC. I honestly can't blame him for taking advantage of always being told you're the man. Mayo's been getting pub since he was in the 6th grade and at the age of 14 he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline "He'd be #1 in the NBA Draft right now!". No one can honestly expect any kid, especially one coming from Mayo's background, to maintain a level head when you're talked about like that. In high school, the best player on the team gets rock star status at the school even if his game would make him the 8th man on a powerhouse, so you can begin to imagine the type of attention such a highly-touted kid could get. Not to mention the coaches, parents and hangers-on, you can start to see where some of this sense of entitlement and selfishness comes from. The recent proof has come from AAU teams and camps, where the emphasis is more on the indvidual performance rather than the team result. Many high schoolers play their way into college through workouts, which helps their mentality of "I'm the man and everyone else be damned."

Being on the other side of the high school basketball culture and dealing with parents and coaches, I can say that the feelings are mutual. During a playoff game last season, a parent was more concerned with her son (who was going to Liberty) getting hurt than she was about the team winning the game was still in reach. Not to mention players defying coach orders just to pad stats.

I think the one and done rule for college is stupid and is just placating to those who complain about the kids jumping straight out of high school. If the NBA was serious about the issue, they would make it 2 years. But the larger issue here is the people that surround them or we'll see more undrafted flameouts or guys like Jerryd Bayless who leave too early.