“The name on the front is a lot more important than the one on the back.” — USA Hockey coach Herb Brooks in “Miracle”
The name on Brandon Jennings’ front is irrelevant. The name on his back — literally, it’s tattooed — resonates. As an Internet photo shows, Jennings’ back ink reads: “Young Money.”
Jennings is the trailblazing teen fresh off senior prom who will play next season for a European pro basketball team instead of the NCAA.
A controversial NBA rule states players must be 19 to enter the draft, but Jennings will be the first big name to spend that post-prep year giving it the ol’ international basketball try. Of course, there was talk about his test scores not being high enough to play at Arizona, his intended school. But his lawyer said even if Jennings’ third go-round with the SATs makes him eligible, he’s still going to get his passport punched.
And so, while the top 2007 high-schoolers prepare for their first pro season, so will the top 2008 high-schooler.
At first, hearing about “Young Money” skipping college for Europe, it just didn’t sit right.
It seemed wrong. Weird. Problematic.
Is he a horrible ambassador for this quick-cash generation of ballers?
And is he sticking it to our sacred college basketball system, while neglecting the notion of higher education? As he plainly explained to The New York Times: “Our dream is to get to the NBA. College is like, OK, we’ll do this one year, but our real mind-set is that we’re trying to get to the league, take care of our families. They’re making us do college so we feel like, ‘Let’s do one year, go to class half the time.’ ”
Really, Jennings is just ahead of his time. He’s the first to say college basketball is just an inconvenient detour on the road to big money, so if he can take the express lane to American Express, then he will.
His actions shine a bright interrogation light on the current system. The one-and-done ruling does send the Greg Odens and Derrick Roses to school for a year, enhancing the college game. But at the end of the day, the one-and-done rule just delays the inevitable while focusing on the farces of these penniless “Young Moneys” being “student-athletes.”
I’m not saying change the rule. The rule saves future Lenny Cookes — a high-schooler who skipped college and wasn’t drafted — from ever having to choose between the NBA and school. But until some tweaking is done, the future Lennys (and Brandons) will be “Young Euros.”
