Response to Keegan

Hey keegan and everyone else. Thanks for the welcome. In response to your question about NBA players being drafted from High School. Right now I think what is happening to black men in general is really a shame. All of these statistics are coming out about how they are the largest group unemployed, dropping out of school, and now there's this whole thing with the "Downlow" (seemingly straight and thuggish men with girlfriends who are having sex with men and then passing aids to their girlfriends: check old NY times magazine is you want to read the exclusive). I think that although these African-American players in highschool have great talent, by allowing them to by=pass (or making it seem that is perfectly acceptable) it sets a bad example in many ways. One it says that college does not matter, because if they really wanted to they could encourage players to play in college and then join the NBA. They do take advantage of these kids as well by flashing the money and all the rest of it in their faces, especially when they come from homes where for the most part their parents can't direct them in the right way or they don't know the value of education. And the parents themselves get lured by the money. Bypassing college also gives the millions of other kids who think they are going to be the next kobe or lebraun (sp?) the message that they can just play basketball growing up and they're going to get of the hood the same way as these other guys. The reality is that a select number of people go to the NBA after highschool and most of these kids who think they will be the next kobe, and school doesn't matter, and the nba will take care of them, go nowhere. There is a great short story about all of this, I will have to ask my teacher the name of it, and how these highschool boys are just played by recruiters and they have all these ideas put into their heads and then they're forgotten completely and left to do nothing. And when there is college recruiting their is an SAT requirement that a lot of guys don't meet and then they getting totally dropped as well. I think the NBA recruiting is problem within a greater national problem that the US and the african-american community is facing right now.
Sorry that was long, tell me if you have any more questions about that.