With the NBA’s rule on being 1 year removed from high school graduation, we no longer see basketball phenoms entering the NBA straight from high school. Have you ever thought about where some of the stars who skipped college would have played collegiately?
Jermaine O’neal, went from high school in Columbia S.C. to the NBA in 1996, likely would have stayed in Columbia and gone to the Univ of South Carolina.
Moses Malone, the only high schooler to go straight to the pros and be elected to the Basketball Hall Of Fame. In 1974 the NBA wasn’t letting players into the league from high school, so Malone was drafted by the ABA Utah Stars; he actually had signed a letter of intent to play at the Univ. of Maryland.
Kwame Brown, the first high schooler to be the overall #1 draft pick, would have gone to Florida.
Tyson Chandler was the overall #2 pick in the 2001 draft; he says he would have gone to UCLA.
Tracy McGrady finished his prep career at Mt. Zion Christian Academy in Durham in 1997; he says he likely would have gone to Kentucky.
Amare Stoudemire, the only player to enter the NBA from high school and be elected Rookie Of The Year, says his number one choice was Memphis.
Kevin Garnett wanted to go to college, but his SAT scores weren’t good enough for him to be admitted to a division I school and he didn’t want to go to junior college or play at a division II school. After declaring for the NBA draft he got results from his latest SAT and his score was good enough for him to have been admitted to a division I school; Kevin says he wanted to go to the Univ. of Maryland.
Dwight Howard says he likely would have stayed home and attended Georgia Tech.
Lebron James was likely to have gone to Ohio State.
Kobe Bryant; last year Kobe said his college of choice would have been the Univ. of North Carolina.
