Dick Vitale figures it’s time to change the name of the NBA draft.
“This is a developmental-league draft,” Vitale, ESPN’s college-basketball analyst, exclaimed Thursday night as he watched eight high school players and six foreigners selected in the first round.
Just 15 college players were taken in the first 29 picks — four seniors. Eight prep players were called to the New York Madison Square Garden podium before college player of the year Jameer Nelson, a St. Joseph’s senior tapped 20th by the Denver Nuggets.
“It’s crazy. The draft is getting younger and younger,” Vitale said of the NBA’s penchant to draft on potential.
Kansas University coach Bill Self, who before the draft predicted at least seven high schoolers and seven Europeans would be selected in round one, wishes the early exodus of players would stop.
“In a perfect world, I wish there was some legislation that required people to stay a minimum number of years (in college),” Self said. “The NBA would become a better game because you don’t draft guys and spend two years just practicing them or putting them on injured reserve. They would actually be getting guys to help them win games.”
It also goes without saying having players stay in college three seasons would help the NCAA game.
“If you put a minimum age or baseball-type limit on them telling them they can’t go until their junior year, I think that would be great in theory,” Self said. “Times have changed. It used to be, and not that long ago, guys went to school to get better and over the course of time to prepare themselves to play in the NBA.
“Now, a lot of guys want to go to school and showcase their skills and get there as quickly as possible because the NBA has encouraged obviously drafting guys early so it almost comes to the point if you stay in school you must not be very good.”
The system in college baseball might work in hoops.
“If a high school kid goes straight to Kansas he can’t sign until he’s 21 or a junior,” Self said. “If he goes to a juco he can sign right after his freshman year. You could go junior college, but once you enroll in a four-year campus you can’t go. You eliminate agents. You eliminate runners. You eliminate a lot of the things coaches deal with and things players deal with that they are not prepared to deal with because they don’t know.”
Self said it was amazing how many NBA scouts attended college games.
“This information is such an inexact science,” he said. “You’ve got 17 NBA scouts watching our game. How many of those guys they are watching are going to be lottery picks?
“Everybody thinks, ‘They’re here to watch me.’ There are not that many picks. You will have 70 kids being guaranteed they will be first-round picks based on what people have told them, and 100 guys that are guaranteed they’ll be drafted based on what people have told them.”
But there were just 59 players taken in this year’s draft.
Perhaps next season Kansas can help put an end to the madness. KU will have three seniors — Wayne Simien, Aaron Miles and Keith Langford — who all could be taken in the first round.
“I think next year at this time, depending on how things go, we could have a lot of anxious guys,” Self said of draft day. “We may not have very many guys playing in the (campers) game next year because their agents won’t let them play until they get drafted or sign.
“I think we’ll have three or four guys have a chance to get picked.”
Self hopes his hard-working seniors will be rewarded.
“Are Keith, Aaron and Wayne good enough to get paid to play? No question. Is anything guaranteed? No,” Self said. “I believe these guys have an unbelievable opportunity to make a lot of money and play a long time not because they are individual superstars, but they can make others better.”
Added Simien: “Lord willing, I’ll be on that podium next year.”
Miles and Langford also discussed their possible NBA futures this week at Self’s camp.
“As long as you get drafted in the NBA, it’s all good. It’s a blessing just to get there,” Miles said.
“I’ll play for whatever team wants to play me … but preferably the Pacers,” joked Langford, who grew up idolizing Jalen Rose during his six years with the Pacers (1997-02).
Collison camp: Former KU basketball player Nick Collison of the Seattle SuperSonics will hold a camp for third- to 12th-grade boys July 27-30 at Valley Center High outside of Wichita. Information and sign-up forms are available at jjdsports.com.
