Pursuing any career is highly challenging, although the path seems trodden in general. You just need to be a good boy or girl at school, graduate to make your parents happy, choose a promising college, and do your best to get a degree there. Sounds very simple in theory, right? If the college is decent enough, you will surely get employment. The mission’s completed! Unfortunately, theory and reality rarely correlate this way.
Things get even more complicated if your chosen career is somehow connected to sports. Can you combine it with an unrelated degree? Won’t you be too old if you join professional sports after college? Nowadays, you can use multiple tools that assist you in studying. Even if they don’t offer to write a paper for you from scratch, such programs and services ultimately save you effort, allowing you to distribute time effectively between various activities. But what if we look closely at the academic struggles of athletes from the past? NBA players with college degrees and NBA players who skipped college surely had their reasons.
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan needs no introduction. Even those who don’t consider themselves basketball fans usually know a single fact from his biography: this man is a legend. Six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls outline his remarkable achievements, but skipping his college years is a crime. He started his first game as a freshman at North Carolina and played as a guard for three years. Michael Jordan was ranked as one of the best high school players in the country, so his perspectives were excellent even before his enrollment at North Carolina. But what’s after it? He won a national championship.
In a year, Jordan became the team’s leading scorer and doubled his points per game. Newspapers praised him for his great jumping ability and admitted that he had no flaws worth mentioning. His talent was evident, but Jordan also performed as a quick learner ready to act in any crisis. As he said, “I hate to lose. I guess that’s it as much as anything.” Professors remembered Jordan as a bright student, and finally, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geography, succeeding in both sports and his studies.
Jeremy Lin
Another NBA player with a college degree can also be considered a legend as the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA. Needless to say, very few Asian Americans played in the league during those decades. But Jeremy Lin didn’t just play — he sparked a cultural phenomenon called Linsanity, which described general excitement around his performance. Like many other remarkable players, Jeremy Lin earned recognition in high school, but he didn’t receive any college basketball scholarship offers. Therefore, he enrolled at Harvard University and eventually graduated with an economics degree. Despite the endless challenges, Lin became famous for his dedication and work ethic. Fans in Taiwan, China, and the US have equally rooted for his success.
LeBron James
If you google “LeBron James college”, you’ll find out in a second that he didn’t attend any. Yes, we’re moving on to stories and characteristics of NBA players who skipped college degrees during their careers. According to the current NBA draft eligibility rules, players must be at least 19 during the draft calendar year and be at least one year removed from their high school graduation. However, LeBron entered directly into the 2003 NBA draft in time, when such a strategy was still possible. He finished St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and had never played a game in college. Although he made several comments about colleges he would have attended in a different world, hardly anyone can criticize his real-life career development.
Kobe Bryant
Googling “Kobe Bryant college” isn’t very resultative either. This player graduated from Lower Merion High School and never attended college. Despite declaring for the NBA Draft when he was only 17, Kobe Bryant had no problems with NBA draft eligibility rules since his career started almost a decade before the changes outlined on the horizon. As a son of a professional basketball player, he learned to love this sport early and often copied his father’s techniques. Nevertheless, Joe Bryant wasn’t Kobe’s only teacher. It is said that Kobe never hesitated to ask questions, even if in front of him was a living legend, Michael Jordan. Possibly, advice from such masters helped the young player to find his own path as a scorer and a defensive specialist.
Wrapping up
After equally successful examples of NBA players with college degrees and NBA players who skipped college, you may be wondering why minimum age and education requirements were introduced at all. Shouldn’t players decide for themselves how to build their careers most effectively? Yes and no, since professional basketball has pretty strict demands on players’ emotional and physical maturity. Slight restrictions benefit everyone involved by helping players adapt to the league’s lifestyle. Although experts still argue about current policies, the rules of the game are not likely to change in the next several years.