Brandon Rush declares himself NBA ready

Over the last few weeks Brandon Rush was trying to make up his mind whether or not he would forego his college studies or go into the NBA. He chose the NBA today.

I had thought that his mother and grandmother wanted him to stay in college to pick up his degree. Well, apparently the college degree was merely a paper he could hang on his wall but the NBA was far more special than any college degree. He reasoned that because of his age that he would be too old to wait just one or two years to enter the NBA. Afterall, Rush is at the ripe old age of 22! If he waited another two years he would be 24.

Back in the late seventies when I was going to school it wasn't uncommon to have students older than twenty-two years old being athletically eligible and finishing out their degree. I knew of at least one person who was going on twenty-five and still playing college basketball. But then again, it wasn't a big name college like KU and he would have never been NBA ready. He went to a small Christian College and obtained his degree.

It is a shame that more kids don't think more of getting their degree first and then try for the NBA. Getting a degree when you are younger is much easier than when you are older. The NBA will always be there and staying in college athletics will only help improve your game and skills even more.

There should be some way to persuade these young kids to stay in school, get their degree and then go into the NBA. But these kids see the other side of the NBA, the money and the travel. Maybe they can be a high draft pick. Maybe they will choose to come back because their
numbers aren't low enough. But maybe then again, there needs to be some kind of program in place to promote learning, get a degree and THEN go to the NBA.

I congratulate the players who go the route of the degree and then go to the NBA. They are truly the student-athletes.