Early Risers

Youth will be served. Even if NBA Commissioner David Stern has to force a smile as he reads the names of recent high school graduates selected in Wednesday’s draft. It will be served, no matter how loudly college basketball purists protest in disgust.

Six of the 54 early-entry candidates are straight out of high school, and there’s a good chance that four--including Compton Dominguez High’s Tyson Chandler--will be among the top 10 picks.

Since the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Kevin Garnett of Illinois’ Farragut Academy with the fifth pick in 1995, 10 high school seniors have been drafted, and scouting methods have been forever changed.

“All you have to do now is mention the name of some outstanding kid in the eighth grade,” Indiana Pacer President Donnie Walsh said. “I guarantee there will be NBA scouts running down to see [him]. It’s getting to that point.”

Stern has carved out a tenuous position between two bickering factions--those who think the NBA should rule out draft candidates younger than 20, and those who consider such a ban unfair and unconstitutional.

Although Stern has proposed an age requirement, the NBA Players Assn. has rejected the notion. The union’s director, Billy Hunter, has no intention of backing such a ban and feels the rules already in place are sufficient. A player is eligible to be drafted only after his high school class has graduated.

“If a player is skilled enough to come in, he should be able to come,” Hunter said this year. “When you start out playing sports in high school, college, etc., when you’ve demonstrated that you’ve got some skill and ability, why should the door be closed to you? I don’t see it happening in other sports . . . so why should it happen in basketball?”

In 1975, Darryl Dawkins became the first high school player drafted by the NBA when the Philadelphia 76ers made him the fifth pick. (Moses Malone was drafted out of high school by the ABA a year earlier.) Since then, NBA teams have drafted a dozen players from the prep ranks, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and Darius Miles of the Clippers among them.

Some of the picks were blunders.

Korleone Young, a star at Virginia’s Hargrove Academy, was picked by the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the 1998 draft and played in only three games. The Dallas Mavericks drafted high schooler Leon Smith in 1999, then released him after a series of troubling incidents, among them an apparent suicide attempt. Last week, 18-year-old Utah Jazz rookie DeShawn Stevenson was charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Such incidents do little to improve the image of the NBA, which has been battling sagging attendance and TV ratings. Veterans make mistakes too, but young players are especially prone to them.

Many college seniors--the type of athletes once praised for completing their educations--are now seen as not-ready-for-prime-time players. If they were better, the argument goes, they would be in the pros by now. There are exceptions (see Duke’s Shane Battier), but they are few.

Stern said he’s disturbed by it all, but doesn’t have the authority to step in and derail what has become an accepted part of assembling a team.

“I don’t feel enhanced by having 70 NBA team personnel at the McDonald’s High School All-American game,” he said. “I don’t think it’s good for us.”

That said, Stern doesn’t hold teams accountable for sending someone there:

“If a general manager is going to get judged--and judged harshly--for missing the next Kobe, then he’s going to have to be there. In fact, he’d get fired if he weren’t and missed a player.”

Scouting and drafting the talent is only the beginning, said Walsh, whose roster includes three players taken right out of high school--Jermaine O’Neal, Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender. The team last year hired O’Neal’s coach from Eu Claire (S.C.) High, George Glymph, to mentor the young men.

“You’re removing a kid from a high school environment and putting him into a very, very high-intensity profession,” Walsh said. “You have to account for that.”

People on both sides of the age issue make compelling arguments, with each accusing the other of trying to horde elite players.

John Thompson, former Georgetown coach and a staunch proponent of age limits, has urged the NCAA and NBA to come together to reach a compromise. He said the current situation not only glorifies teens who are not ready to play at the pro level, but takes jobs away from seasoned veterans.

“If [union officials] are worried about the best interest of the game and the best interest of the players, they need to stop singing that old tired song about how a kid has the right to come out as early as he wants to,” Thompson recently told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I might know how to drive a car when I’m 13 years old, but they don’t let me get a license.”

Critics, such as CBS college basketball commentator Billy Packer, ask: Why not steer those players to college instead? After all, not every player realizes his hoop dreams.

“These players are not going to make an immediate impact on the playoffs or the quality of upper-echelon teams,” Packer said. “What it becomes is a three-year baby-sitting service.”

Baloney, says the union. If an 18-year-old can vote or go to war, why can’t he earn a living as a pro basketball player?

Opponents of age restrictions say proponents may have more than the players’ best interests in mind. Age restrictions would benefit college basketball, which must justify a $6-billion TV contract. Where, they ask, are the protests when baseball or hockey players jump from high school to the minor leagues? Does it have anything to do with the fact that those college sports programs do not produce millions in revenue?

Stern and the owners, however, aren’t the only people in NBA circles who would like to see a rules change.

“I think everybody would be better served with an age limit,” said Jerry Reynolds, the Sacramento Kings’ director of player personnel. “The teams would benefit, because you’ll still get the same guys but they’ll be older and better prepared. It’s hard to imagine anyone having a problem with it.”

The NBA does have at least one age requirement in place.

Players must be at least 20 to be eligible for the National Basketball Development League, which will tip off its inaugural season in November with teams based in eight southeastern cities.

Critics of the league say it’s another attempt by owners to get by on the cheap. Players get paid $30,000 a year, giving teams an economical preview of the talent pool without wasting millions on players who could be busts.

Stern said the age requirement was instituted so the development league would not be viewed as an alternative to college. A player younger than 20 can participate in the league, however, if he is drafted by an NBA team, then released.

Others, such as Packer, predict it will be a disaster:

“Now we’ve got a situation where there will be thousands of kids in the seventh and eighth grade who’ve got a goal on their hands: be in the development league. ‘And then, a year from now, I’m going to be playing in the backcourt with Kobe.’ ”

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Youth Brigade

High schoolers who made themselves available for NBA or ABA draft:

*--*

Year Player Comment 1974 Moses Malone* Three-time NBA MVP 1975 Darryl Dawkins “Chocolate Thunder” known for spectacular dunks Bill Willoughby Averaged only six points a game 1989 Shawn Kemp** Six-time all-star for Seattle, Cleveland, now with Portland 1995 Kevin Garnett Averaged 18.6 points a game in six seasons 1996 Kobe Bryant You’ve probably heard of him Taj McDavid Not drafted; has not played professionally Jermaine O’Neal Averaged 12.9 points for Pacers last season 1997 Tracy McGrady Seventh in NBA in scoring last season at 26.8 per game 1998 Al Harrington Started 38 games for Pacers, averaged 7.5 points Rashard Lewis Scoring average gets higher each season (2.4, 8.2, 14.8) Korleone Young Played in only three NBA games Ellis Richardson Not drafted; has not played professionally 1999 Jonathan Bender Still sees little playing time with Pacers. Leon Smith Out of NBA after off-court problems 2000 Darius Miles Averaged 9.4 points for Clippers DeShawn Stevenson Played little for Jazz; has off-court legal problems

*--*

* Malone was an ABA draft selection. . . . ** Kemp was drafted out of junior college but did not play basketball there.

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Hard Lessons

LEON SMITH--Personal, legal troubles kept the last selection in the first round of the 1999 draft from playing in NBA.

KORLEONE YOUNG--The 40th player taken in the 1999 draft played three games for Detroit, then fell off the NBA map.

DeSHAWN STEVENSON--The 23rd pick of 2000 draft was used sparingly by Utah, now faces a statutory rape charge.

Head of

the Class

KOBE BRYANT--The 13th pick of 1996 draft already has it all--commercials, nice digs, two championship rings.

KEVIN GARNETT--The fifth selection of 1995 draft has shown what all the hype was about as a Chicago prep.

DARRYL DAWKINS--First high school player ever selected in NBA draft (1975) created his own space--and Lovetron.