ORLANDO, Fla. — If the NBA Finals have taught us anything, it’s that attending college to learn how to play basketball is somewhere between vastly overrated and downright stupid.
Exhibit A: Dwight Howard.
Exhibit B: Kobe Bryant.
“I don’t think going to college would have helped me,” Howard said Wednesday.
At age 23, Howard is convinced learning on the job in the NBA turned him into Superman quicker than eating pizza in a college dorm room. Maybe he has a point. Howard owns an Olympic gold medal, drives a Rolls-Royce and takes home an annual salary of $13.8 million to his 11,000-square-foot mansion.
“Well,” I suggested, “you’re obviously richer for being here . . .”
Faster than a speeding bullet, Superman cut off my argument before the debate could start.
“It’s not about money,” insisted Howard, a proud graduate of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Class of 2004.
It’s about basketball.
The superstars playing leading roles for the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic in the Finals will soon have four NBA championship rings and no college homecoming dances between them.
For the best players on earth, a good basketball education has absolutely nothing to do with reading, writing or arithmetic. As Bryant and Howard realized as precocious teenagers but Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo did not discover until after it was too late, college is generally a waste of time, not to mention an exercise in hypocrisy, for a bona fide hoops prodigy.
Disagree?
Well here’s the shocker: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski believes the NBA’s age-limit rule, which in essence requires a player to be 19 and at least one year removed from high school before becoming draft eligible, is a bad idea and a proven failure.
Playing hoops in college for a single season is a silly charade that insults both the game and any school that truly values its academic integrity.
Or, as Krzyzewski put it, “College should not be an extended-stay hotel.”
If the high-flying, high-soaring sneakers of a freshman basketball star barely touch the ground of the university quad, then the ideal of amateur athletics can be reduced to a dirty joke as quickly as the temporary player gets his mitts on an NBA lottery ticket.
Point guard Derrick Rose led Memphis to the national title game in 2008, but after quickly departing for the Chicago Bulls, he left allegations of cheating on his college entrance exam in his wake. Southern Cal coach Tim Floyd suddenly resigned this week rather than fight charges he paid $1,000 to a man who steered Mayo to the Trojans.
Remove any pretense of academic standards from college athletics and all it leaves is too much wiggle room for scandal.
If a prep phenom can show solid credentials as a first- round draft choice, nothing should stop him from jumping immediately from high school to the pros.
“I think kids should be allowed to do it. Right out of high school,” Krzyzewski said. “Look, I just coached a number of guys on our Olympic team who didn’t go to college. So don’t tell me it can’t be done.”
Four years ago, I applauded when the NBA introduced its minimum-age requirement, as a tool intended to improve basketball and life skills of players.
The practical application, however, has made league commissioner David Stern and original supporters such as yours truly appear to be foolish idealists blind to common sense. Unless Stern can convince amateur players and their lawyers it is in the game’s best interest to raise the age limit to 20, the rule should be abolished. Pronto.
“If players come to college, I think they need to be there at least two years. Otherwise, we erode the base of trust between the athletic community and the academic community,” Krzyzewski said during an interview before Game 3 of the Finals.
Bryant took R&B singer Brandy Norwood to his senior prom at Lower Merion (Pa.) High in 1996, then rejected an offer to study with Coach K at Duke. Worked out OK.
Of course, it helped growing up in a basketball family in which eight-year NBA player Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant served as a role model.
“Kobe had the advantage of learning from his dad. So Kobe got great coaching, even though he didn’t go to college,” Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said.
Just as you can’t keep a voice as big as Broadway down home in the church choir, the NBA age limit feels like a violation of the American dream.
Let ’em play for pay.
“Some will say it will screw up a lot of people and players won’t study or whatever,” Krzyzewski said. “Well, these guys know they have to pass ‘American Idol.’ But if they can, I think they should go sing.”
Think former USC coach Floyd wishes Mayo had never stepped on a college campus? Rose looks sweet as the NBA’s reigning rookie of the year, but Memphis is left to clean up the garbage from the school’s quick trip down a twisting, winding road to the Final Four.
Had he spent four years in a college library, Howard would now be an NBA rookie rather than a dominant force who has already led the Magic to two division titles and can boast of three all-star appearances on his resume.
“Not saying that college is bad; it’s very good. But I think for me and what I want to accomplish, it just wasn’t for me,” Howard said.
Only a fool would argue with Superman.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
