Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 12:48 am  |  58 responses

Jeremy Tyler Leaving High School for Europe

The 2010 Top 10 prospect is forgoing his high school diploma to play  professionally overseas: “Tyler, 17, would become the first United States-born player to leave high school early to play professionally overseas. He is expected to return in two years, when he is projected to be a top pick, if not the No. 1 pick, in the 2011 N.B.A. draft.

“Tyler, who had orally committed to play for Rick Pitino at Louisville, has yet to sign with an agent or a professional team. His likely destination is Spain, though teams from other European leagues have shown interest. A spokesman for Louisville said the university could not comment about Tyler.”

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  • Jon

    A while ago , I looked, out of curiosity, how many schools offer education in Spain in English language. I found a list of 73 schools for HS . It’s hard to imagine that there not one in every city that has a professional team.

  • sam

    I think this will work out very well for him immediately. As for the future I don’t think the same can be said unless he plains on continuing his education overseas and earning his GED. He’ll make some good money now and in the NBA but he can’t play basketball forever. At some point in the future, lets face it, unless he saves and invests VERY well all of his money that he earns (very rare with pro athletes, as mentioned in an issue of Sports Illustrated a few months ago) he’s going to have to get a real job working at a desk to make ends meet. Also, its unlikely that he’ll want to go back to school after the NBA, so him at least earning his GED now is crucial to his future financial security, especially with the rut we’re in now. Despite all of this, with good management of his finances, I think this is a great move for him. Agreeing with some of you who posted above, I don’t think there is anything wrong or unusual with this move by him. It happens all the time in other sports. The only reason it is looked at in this manner is because he is from the United States. Perhaps we’re behind in development of high school athletes and this is something that will blaze a trail for future high school players. Anyway, I support his decision and hope it works well for him.

  • John Brown

    Regarding Tyler’s move to the European pros hoops leagues, early from high school? I say it’s about time! And I hope that a viable American pro basketball minor league will finally come to fruition.

    For too long, the myth/ruse of the upper-level, basketball-playing “student-athlete” has been the norm. It and the NCAA are a total joke. There’s never been any “student” in the equation. None at all for many decades at DIV I.

    These hoops kids (with few exceptions) have proven through their lack of graduation rates, drop-out rates, ineligibilty, etc. that they – and the culture that most come from – simply don’t care at all about a free college education. It’s all about the money through hoops. The future is all but forgotten. And almost none will ever return to schooling of any kind. Most will end up bankrupt. Those are the facts.

    However, if Tyler is successful in Europe and in the NBA, maybe we can prevent a few more of these “future would-be pros” from taking the place of legitimate, qualified students in college classrooms.

    Has it ever been more apparent that we need a minor league for pro basketball? And income for DIV I college sports be damned! They’ll be fine. They’d be finer if they’d adopt a “need-based” system like the Ivies but that’s another discussion.

    With the graduation (or lack thereof) rates of coaches like Lute Olsen, Gary Williams, Bob Hutchins. et al. well documented, isn’t it time to put the Tylers of the world where they belong by choice – on the courts of a good, professional minor league?

    And if Tyler gets injured or craps out? He made his bed. Let him and other “short-sighted folk” lie in it.

    John Brown

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  • TLR

    he is doing the politically correct thing. he’s doing home schooling.

  • antoine c

    The NBA is letting this punks get away with murder it that time for David Stern to say enough is enough i dont care how good you think you are you dont run my show

  • Brian

    In a way what hes doing is stupid ,since he wont finish high-school and attend to college, but if I were him and I were to do such a decision, I would attend at least to some international school in the European country hes going to play with.. Im from Sweden and people who live here and play basketball , usually go to United states when they are around 14-15 years old(At the end of Primary School) to study and play high school basketball for at least a year , but they come back to sweden to finish high school without re-taking a year or anything…and this is normal in most of the european countries , the reason why , we dont have High School basketball teams competing against each other(or most of the schools) and we dont get lots of endorsements or recuitment from schools..instead we have Sports Clubs competing in a league for the children and when you graduate from High School , if you are very very good you sign a contract with one of the local clubs or the coach in the team that you play with advices you to a college coach and tries to help you with recuitment to a college in US , since most of the education are free in Europe(We pay higher taxes , thats why schools are free for people in Europe). However I dont know if its free for people from other countries such as US Citzens,people who have chinese citzenship or someone from Kenya?

  • Zapata

    Didn’t Jeremy really leave because he allegedly attacked a ref in a San Diego locker room? Those are the rumors swirling around from certain San Diego County refs. I just wonder that if this supposed incident never occurred, would he have ended up at Louisville? Was going to Israel an expected decision based on this alleged incident? Hmmm?

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