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SAN DIEGO — Jeremy Tyler, a 6-foot-11 high school junior whom some consider the best American big man since Greg Oden, says he will be taking a new path to the N.B.A. He has left San Diego High School and said this week that he would skip his senior year to play professionally in Europe.
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.
“Nowadays people look to college for more off-the-court stuff versus being in the gym and getting better,” Tyler said. “If you’re really focused on getting better, you go play pro somewhere. Pro guys will get you way better than playing against college guys.”
His decision is perhaps the most important one since Kevin Garnett jumped straight to the N.B.A. from high school in 1995. Garnett was the No. 5 pick in the N.B.A. draft and ushered in a generation of preps-to-pros stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwight Howard. A minimum-age rule passed for the 2006 draft cut off that route, essentially forcing players to spend at least one year in college.
But Brandon Jennings, a point guard from Los Angeles, became the first player to graduate from high school, skip college and play professionally in Europe. (Whether Jennings would have qualified academically to play at Arizona, where he had signed a letter of intent, is unknown.) He is in his first season with Lottomatica Virtus Roma in Italy and is projected as a high pick in the N.B.A. draft in June.
Tyler took Jennings’s path and added a compelling twist, perhaps opening the door for other elite high school basketball players to follow.
Sonny Vaccaro, a former sneaker company executive, orchestrated Jennings’s move and has guided Tyler and his family through the process.
“It’s significant because it shows the curiosity for the American player just refusing to accept what he’s told he has to do,” Vaccaro said. “We’re getting closer to the European reality of a professional at a young age. Basically, Jeremy Tyler is saying, ‘Why do I have to go to high school?’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/sports/ncaabasketball/23prospect.html?_r=1&hp
I love it. I've been talking about this as a possibility since the age rule came in play, and now someone is finally doing it.