The Case for More School
November 9th, 2009 - byJeremy Tyler has been described as a basketball player in many ways. He is used to being described as a young phenom, the next big thing, even the best prospect in 100 years. Last year he made the groundbreaking decision to leave high school early to play professionally in Israel.
However, lately the words describing Jeremy have turned negative. For the first time in his life, he is facing adversity and the early returns are not promising. The New York Times checked in Jeremy and his rocky start in Israel.
He just isn’t used to being described in a negative way. The young phenom who made the decision to skip his final year of year of high school to play professionally in Israel.
His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team. In extensive interviews with Tyler, his teammates, coaches, his father and advisers, the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is. So enamored with his vast potential, Tyler has not developed the work ethic necessary to tap it.
“The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career,” Haifa Coach Avi Ashkenazi said. “If he thinks he’s going to be in the N.B.A. because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be.”
Obviously this story’s ending has yet to be written, but things don’t sound promising. There is a reason that professionals in all types of careers attend college. Even genius college drop-outs like Bill Gates finished high school. We could finally be seeing some push back on the rush to get to the pros. Here’s to hoping that student-athletes around the country see the position Jeremy Tyler has put himself into, and remember the importance of academics.
