I'm tired of high school players in the NBA.

Sure, some people would call me a hater or jealous, but I don't really care. I don't like all these high school players coming in the NBA. I feel that there should be some sort of logic that goes into selecting draft picks. Don't get me wrong: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett weren't going to get too much out of going to college except a championship and even more hype than they had due to anticipation. But just because they did it doesn't mean every high schooler should be able to make the jump. Most of them just aren't ready.

As good as Tracy McGrady is, once I really started paying attention to his game, I felt like he should have gone to college. Offensively, he's one of the most gifted players in the league, but he doesn't play a lick of defense. Somehow I can't help feeling that if he'd gone to a big time college program, they would have drilled defense into him. Imagine how much better he'd be right now if he'd spent a year or two in school, just learning that. Or how to attack a zone, as he openly admitted he didn't know how to do. If he'd gone to school, he'd know how to attack one because that's every college defense...a zone defense of some kind. He would have seen them all and learned how to attack them. And if I feel that Tracy McGrady should have gone to school, you can imagine how i feel about such busts as Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, and Tyson Chandler. These three jokers are pretty much a prime example of why kids need to go to school.

The difference between those three and Kobe, KG, and LeBron is that as high schoolers, you could just see how great they'd become. You knew that there wasn't much point to them going to college. Bryant's and Garnett's careers would have pretty much turned out the same. It's just that they would have hit the ground running instead of not doing much except teasing us with what was to come. Let's face it, for Kobe Bryant's first three years, he wasn't anything close to good, let alone great. He wasn't even the best two-guard on his team. And don't get me started on his shot selection. Then, it all came together. He could have come into the league after his junior year in college and things would have turned out exactly the same as they did, except he'd be on another team. Kevin Garnett was pretty much the same. If he had been able to get in school, he could have used a year or two and then, he would have done pretty much everything he's done. LeBron...well, that man's just a beast. And he's only 19.

Every other high school player since has had the word "project" attached to their names. Go ahead and check. I'll wait. When you come back, you'll see I'm right, except for Tracy McGrady. Any other one you want to name...project. BUT...everyone's looking at their potential. Conversely, you have a lot of college seniors that come in and don't do much. One line of thinking about that is that they stayed in school because their draft status never reached where they wanted it to, so they kept going back. Therefore, they're not that good. That's one way to look at it. Personally, if I were a general manager, I'd take that junior or senior over a high schooler, just because I've seen what they can do in a tougher environment, in bigger games, against tougher competition. The high school players are good, but do you know how easy it is to make a high school team? At 26 and out of shape, I could walk into a tryout next week and make the team. It's that easy. My point is, they look good against kids who aren't as good. Show me how good they are against people as good or better than they are. If you can excel there, then you've PROVEN that you're ready for the NBA. The elite...the best of the best. College upperclassmen have shown that. Even those who failed to excel. But they can say that they've excelled at a high level. At the very least, you have respect what John Wallace did at Syracuse, even if he was an NBA bust. What did Korleone Young ever do? Or the O'Bannons...even though they weren't seniors, they were winners at UCLA. Miles Simon from Arizona, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King from Michigan, even Joe Forte from North Carolina. You knew they could at least play at the college level. Kwame Brown hasn't even shown me that, let alone at the NBA level. My point here is, you made a safer bet with those guys than you did with high school kids. For instance, even though Marcus Camby isn't a dominant player in the NBA and Tim Duncan is, in college you saw Camby dominate Duncan when they were in college. Who did Jonathan Bender ever dominate? And scoring 31 in the McDonald's Game doesn't count.

Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry are entering their fourth year in the league. I hated that they got drafted by the Bulls since the day I heard their names called. The Bulls are my favorite team and it pains me to watch them, because they haven't shown me anything since they got in the league. Tyson Chandler will be a Marcus Camby-type for years to come, which isn't bad. Eddy Curry is...well, he's not going to be a headliner, either. Now looking back at the 2001 Draft, you'll see that Tyson Chandler was selected second, before Pau Gasol. In retrospect, that was a bad pick. At the time, though, would you have picked Kwame Brown (1st), Tyson Chandler (2nd) or Eddy Curry (4th) before Jason Richardson (5th) , Shane Battier (6th) , or Joe Johnson (10th)? This was a weak draft and they still shouldn't have been that high. Even today, how are those guys better than, say...Brendan Haywood? I maintain to this day that Shane Battier should have gone first. If that draft could be redone now, Pau Gasol would have gone first and Tony Parker would have gone second. There isn't a team in the league that would have drafted those three in the first round, if at all.

And this is more or less my argument for why these kids need to go to school. The NBA needs an age limit. Their games speak for themselves. I don't even need to give examples, except for maybe more name dropping. Darius Miles (still not producing), Jermaine O'Neal (five years on the bench), DeShawn Stevenson (someone tell me what his number is...I'll give you 20 bucks if you can name it without researching it first) DeSagana Diop (how can this waste still not post up?) Kedrick Brown (okay...not bad), Leon Smith (Who?) Al Harrington (overrated, to date...maxed out as a sixth man for Indiana), Amare Stoudamire (the exception that proves the rule), Qyntel Woods (tell me one thing he's done...ever) and last as well as least, Korleone f'n Young.

Okay, have I made my point? Kids...take your butts to school and learn how to do what you're doing. You'll make more money that way, I assure you. And GMs...stop drafting high schoolers, unless they're can't miss kids like LeBron is or Kobe and KG were. Remember, the rule of thumb is if you're focused on "potential" or the word "project" comes up in your thoughts, draft someone else. That way, you won't have these kids uglying up the game more than it already is.

Model yourselves after someone who wasn't on the And 1 Mixtapes. You see where that got you. And the NBA don't owe you snotnosed punks nothing.