Low in the eastern sky, the sun showed up again this morning and eventually shined on Allen Fieldhouse. Darned if the hallowed hall of Kansas University basketball wasn’t still standing.
DeShawn Stevenson’s decision to turn pro failed to crumble the storied and soot-stained limestone structure.
Recantation of a basketball letter of intent in pursuit of a professional career is unprecedented in KU’s storied basketball history, but life goes on.
Collegians do it all the time, but it’s rare for a prep player especially a guard to forsake at least a couple of years of college to make it in the NBA.
Perhaps someday we’ll be able to watch the 6-foot-5 Stevenson play in the NBA. Unless he is drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers or New Jersey Nets or some other dreadful team. Bad teams appear on national or cable TV about as often as cigarette commercials.
How good is DeShawn Stevenson? Who knows?
My only exposure and probably yours to Stevenson was the televised McDonald’s All-America game a couple of months ago and that me-myself-and-I mish-mash has evolved into little more than a shameful dunk contest.
Yeah, Stevenson can dunk. In fact, he won the dunk contest in conjunction with the McDonald’s game. But, heck, Kenny Gregory can dunk, too. Gregory, the KU senior-to-be, is also 6-5, but he’ll have a tough time making an NBA roster next season because he lacks backcourt skills.
Is Stevenson the next Kobe Bryant, a classic No. 2 guard? Or is he another Gregory, a forward in a guard’s body?
Stevenson is the first high school guard to opt for the NBA since Bryant, now a fixture with the Los Angeles Lakers. I think it’s safe to assume Stevenson has watched Bryant play on television more than a couple of times, and went to school on Bryant’s success.
Stevenson vowed he wanted to turn pro all along, that he signed the letter of intent with Kansas University last November in order to placate his parents who wanted him to head for Mount Oread.
It has been speculated Stevenson did poorly on those standardized tests required for an NCAA scholarship because of his desire to turn pro. Did he, or didn’t he? We’ll never know.
I know this. Stevenson is old enough to play pro ball. He’s already 19, older than most high school seniors.
Many 17- and 18-year-olds barely have a diploma in their hands before they sign pro baseball contracts. Check out the Royals’ roster. Only one KC player catcher Brian Johnson has a college degree.
Carlos Beltran signed out of high school. So did Johnny Damon, Jeff Suppan and Mike Sweeney. For that matter, so did such former KC greats as George Brett, Amos Otis, John Mayberry, Willie Wilson and Bret Saberhagen.
Then there is Lee Stevens who signed a pro baseball pact less than a month after he graduated from Lawrence High in 1986. Stevens had signed a baseball tender with Arkansas.
Why can’t high school seniors sign pro basketball contracts, too?
It’s all perception. Television influences how people perceive college basketball and college baseball. Men’s college basketball has a jillion-dollar television contract. College baseball is tape delay.
Of course, for every Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Moses Malone NBA standouts who went directly from high school to the pros there is a Leon Smith, a Korleone Young or a Rodney Fields. Or, if your memory is longer, the legendary Bill “Poodles” Willoughby.
DeShawn Stevenson, we hardly knew you.
Still, we’ll be watching for you in the NBA, all the while hoping you never have to see the inside of gyms in Sioux Falls, Yakima, Roanoke or, pardon the potential irony, Salina.