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What do you mean by didnt' make it? Out of the league after a couple of seasons?
Hey guys... so I'm writing a paper on some of the players who skipped or only took 1 year of College to go into the NBA and didn't make it. I have a few names down but not many, can you guys think of any other players who are now nobodies after flunking out of the NBA after skipping/not finishing college? Thanks
What do you mean by didnt' make it? Out of the league after a couple of seasons?
I just checked on wikipedia on the NBA draft 2003, and there's an NBA player named James Lang who went out of high school straight to the NBA draft. He was waived on December of the same year.
Sebastian Telfair
I would also say that these athletes rely more on athleticism rather than skill.
He's still playing in the NBA, he saying NBA players that are not in the NBA.
Forgot to mention Kobe
Oh, gotcha, my bad.
Jackie Butler couldn't talk while playing.
Gerald Green was actually lucky to avoid college, he probably would have never been drafted in the 1st round. He's not a nobody just yet but he'll soon be.
The first McHale's draft pick after losing all those picks due to the Joe Smith affair was Ndudi Ebi.
Jonathan Bender is apparently trying a comeback. He had an interesting life after leaving the NBA.
Eddie Griffin is the obvious case of someone who could have used some more maturing before entering the league. Or Shawne Williams. Chris Washburn is another one.
DaJuan Wagner is still trying to play, I heard.
He was playing in the D-League for the Utah Flash last season.
Darius Washington. Led Memphis to the Elite 8 his sophmore year. All-Conference USA and honorable mention all american. left early for the nba. didnt get drafted. tried out for several teams but never made it in the nba. could have been a good player if he stayed at memphis.
You guys are awesome, thanks!
Leon Smith
Looking for some more players... any players who didn't finish college that suffered career ending injuries?
There's a player in the NBA 2001 NBA draft namded Ousmane Cisse, came right out of high school. He was the 47th pick of the NBA draft, injured and joined the globetrotters. He made an attempt but only played one game with the Magic.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Cisse
Leon Smith was a 29th pick for the San Antonio Spurs, who came out of high school. first round 29th pick, but got into trouble and like taking pills a little too much.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Smith
Shaun Livingston had the knee injury. Steve Francis had that quad injury with the Rockets and hasn't played anywhere since. Based on your criteria, I'm not sure if Darius Miles counts too.
There was a guy named Ndudi Ebi who came directly out of high school (in Houston) and was a first round draft pick by Minnesota in 2003. He plays somewhere in Europe now.
Del, try Jay Williams
Rodney White is probably the biggest bust to fit your description that I can think of coming in lately (a guy Jordan was dying to draft along with such greats as Kwame Brown and Darius Miles who Jordan was also in love with)
I really like the idea of this paper. Last year, I met a young tubby kid who said they wanted to play line in the NFL.
Now normally, we would all think this is cute... but in this economy? So I said,
"Shut the up, Kid."
Kidding... kidding...
But man, the statistics are against them. NCAA says 1 in 100 athletes may go on professionally. With the current economic fears. You know it's got to be less than that.
You guys forgot the biggest failure of them all. Corleone Young.
why waste time writing a whole paper just type 2 words, Kwame Brown
& 2 more, Pau Gasol...& then the number, 15.
tee, hee.
A couple notes on a few guys that have been mentioned or will be mentioned...
DerMarr Johnson - not entirely fair to say he didn't make it without at least making mention that after his rookie season, he got into a car accident and broke his neck. He was never quite the same after that.
Dajuan Wagner - similarly, Wagner had some kind of stomach ulcer disease that I believe took away most of his intestines.
Jonathan Bender - also had some kind of degenerative disease in his knee that really forced him out of the NBA.
Now, this is not to say that they would have made it big if those health situations were different, especially with Bender because he had been in the league for a while. But, I think it's important to note that those injuries or health issues played a part at least a little bit.
I think many of the names have already been mentioned, but you could even extend it to players that left after their sop re season who still weren't ready for the NBA, like Erick Barkley, Marcus Taylor, Will Avery.
One name I do think should be mentioned is Lenny Cooke. He was a high school stud and considered a NBA superstar in the making in high school. But he also thought too highly of his talent. I believe it was the summer of 2001 where Cooke as the top dog at one of those ABC camps and then faced a sop re kid named LeBron James. LeBron pretty much made Lenny look like a middle school kid. After that, Cooke's confidence was never quite the same. He foolishly declared for the 2002 NBA draft and went undrafted.
An interesting twist you could put on the paper might be mentioned how there were some high school and college freshmen that were thought very highly of that stayed in college all four years that ended up hurting their NBA stock and perhaps careers, like Felipe Lopez, Jerod Ward, and Jawad Williams.
Joe Forte
Darius is a Macedonian now and plays for my country. He signed with Galatasaray BC in Turkey this summer after his workouts with Memphis Grizzlies. He still tries to get in the NBA, I hope he can, its a great player.
I met him in person this summer in my hometown in Macedonia, while training with the national team.
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