The concept of teenagers graduating high school and being selected in the NBA Draft during the same month is crazy in the minds of many. But a group of former and current NBA players have made the leap and been successful.
Their success led to more and more high school basketball stars jumping to the NBA too quickly. Hence, a new rule was installed in 2006 that states that high school players are only eligible for draft selection one year after graduating from high school. The player must also be at least 19 years old at the end of the calendar year of the draft.
Instead of top high school players each year jumping to the NBA, they are now going to school for one year—the “one-and-done” phenomenon. But what if this rule was always in place? Where would have the players have gone to school that have dominated the NBA over the last decade?
LeBron James: Ohio State
The most famous high school basketball recruit ever quickly became the biggest star in the NBA. If James, who was selected #1 overall in 2003, had been forced to pick a school, it would have been Ohio State. He would surely have improved a Buckeye team that finished 14-16 and ninth in the Big Ten.
There were also rumors that LeBron would have played football while in Columbus.
Kobe Bryant: Duke
Kobe has made it clear that he would have attended Duke had he made the decision to go to school. He says that he always wanted to play under Coach Krzyzewski and was able to at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Bryant would have been a part of the ’96-’97 Blue Devils team that won the ACC regular season title but was upset by Providence in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Kobe would have competed with ‘The Alaskan Assassin,” Trajan Langdon, for the starting shooting guard spot; but we have a feeling Coach K would have found time for both players.
Kevin Garnett
Garnett opened the floodgates in 1995 when he decided to go from prep school to the NBA. It was a highly-criticized decision that proved successful for KG. Garnett was the first NBA player to be drafted directly out of high school in 20 years.
Nonetheless, had Garnett gone to college, it would have been to either Michigan or Maryland. At Ann Arbor, he would have been at the beginning of the post-Fab Five era and would have played along side fellow freshman Robert “Tractor” Traylor.
At Maryland, KG would have fallen between the Joe Smith-era and before the Steve Francis and Juan Dixon years. Both teams were upset as 7-seeds in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
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