Jeremy Tyler Rocks the Establishment

It makes too much sense. That's the problem. The logic sounds too right. But Jeremy Tyler is a trailblazer now.

Not a Portland Trail Blazer. No, he won't be allowed to play in the NBA for two years under the terms of league commissioner David Stern's cold-hearted, disingenuous rule requiring young men, basically, to become marketed stars in college before starting their chosen profession.

Well, Tyler is getting around that rule, getting around a system that's not built for him. Here's the plan: Tyler, a 17-year-old high school junior in San Diego, has decided to bypass his senior year -- remember, high school -- to play pro in Europe.

Why? To improve his game. Going against pros, he will learn far more than he would against high school kids this fall, college men next year. The plan calls for him to get his GED. As a side, he'll make six figures instead of making nothing while waiting to go to the NBA. There must be some flaw in that. It's all too neat somehow. Does our sports system now encourage kids to be high school dropouts? In Tyler's case, it might be the right thing to do.

"Nowadays, people look to college for more off-the-court stuff, versus being in the gym and getting better," Tyler told The New York Times.

"If you're really focused on getting better, you go play pro somewhere."

The problem is that NBA scouts seem to be agreeing with this. Last year, Brandon Jennings from Los Angeles was considered the nation's best high school point guard. He finished high school, then chose not to go to college, but instead to play professionally in Italy. He has described an ugly scenario there, where everyone treats him as a kid. Sometimes, he sits out games. It is not the glamour he expected.

"It's tough man, I'll tell you that," he told the Times. "It can break you."

Still, Jennings is making over $1 million, and is expected to be an early first-round draft pick in June.

Jennings was the first player to choose Europe over college since the NBA rule. And now Tyler is the next level, moving the bar one more step by bypassing his senior year of high school.

Next up? The line will keep moving. Next up, 16-year-olds. Then 15. Meanwhile, the street agents who run college basketball get more and more powerful. Tyler and Jennings both used Sonny Vaccaro, the former adidas exec who all-but professionalized youth basketball, to help with their deals.

Slippery-slope arguments are never the best, really. But Jennings broke ground, and now Tyler is following with his own twist, and the slide has started.

These lines aren't easy to draw. Eighteen-year-olds are adults. But isn't your sensibility bothered at all by a 17-year-old? That's just one year different.

Something seems wrong, though, when a 17-year-old puts sports ahead of education.

And think of your own childhood. As a high school junior, would you have been OK moving to Europe -- Tyler hasn't picked a country or team yet -- and just living there as a professional?

Do you speak the language? Are you ready for the daily responsibilities of paying bills, budgeting money? Do you know how to do your laundry?

In most cases, this would be doomed for failure. But maybe Tyler, a 6-foot-11 center, is too good for this to flop. Already, he's projected as the No. 1 pick in the draft in two years.

He becomes the test case. And believe it: Kids are watching.

So is the NBA. So is the NCAA.

We further professionalize our kids, and then the kids who aren't quite Tyler's level will forgo studies to try Europe. How will that one work out?

There's the slippery-slope thing again.

The best thing about this is the delicious screw-the-system aspect. As I understood it, Stern put in the age rule, which technically requires players to wait a year after high school to be eligible for the NBA, as a humanitarian thing.

Most players who jumped from high school to the NBA weren't doing well, and Stern suggested that the move was too much for them. They needed a year of college not just for basketball but also for life experience. They weren't ready for all the spotlight.



Call him Nanny Stern, as he just wanted what was best for our kids. Sure, sure. First, Stern conveniently made these touching comments only after his endless promotion of LeBron James, who had made the jump from high school.

No, Stern's real reason for the rule was that NBA teams didn't want to fork over millions to young players who weren't ready. Teams can't help themselves but to draft high school jumpers for some reason. With the rule, players develop on someone else's dime.

Also, the NBA would no longer fill up with unknown high school kids, but rather with college stars, marketed wonderfully by the hype of the NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile, the NCAA was happy to go along with it, as its tournament was starting to waver in image because all the best players weren't bothering to go to college.

Well, college is usually the right choice. But not for everyone. An 18-year old-man is an adult who should be able to start his career, not be forced to play a year without pay to benefit others, benefit the system.

So Tyler is fighting that. He's not going to be well-known after coming back from Spain, if that's where he goes. And NBA teams will risk losing him to other NBA teams. Or, heaven forbid, the kid decides he loves Spain and wants to stay there.

The more kids who go to Europe, the more likely Stern's rule will fall. And look for the NCAA to start talking about paying players. Come on, some poor young men can't even afford a plane ticket home or a Big Mac. Just a few bucks to college players?

Real argument: We need to pay them to keep up with European teams. Slippery slope. But Tyler might be starting something big here. We just don't know what yet.