A Better First for Willoughby

To Bill Willoughby, teenagers should be welcome in the NBA. He was, when he finished high school in 1975 and joined the pros.

But Willoughby, 44, applauds stars such as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Vince Carter, who left college early but returned to get their degrees.

Now, Willoughby also can applaud himself.

On Wednesday, he received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., making the long-retired journeyman the first NBA player to skip college entirely to play, then start school and earn a degree.

For years, Willoughby has been the lesser-known half of the answer to a trivia question: Who were the first two players to go directly from high school to the NBA?

He made the jump along with Darryl Dawkins. Moses Malone skipped college to play in the ABA a year earlier.

Willoughby said he decided to go to college in 1994 after he spoke to a class of NBA rookies that included Jason Kidd and Glenn Robinson. Many of those players went to college but didn’t stay long enough to earn degrees.

“Just because you came out of school early, I wanted to let them know: Always keep school in mind,” Willoughby said.

The National Basketball Retired Players Assn. paid part of Willoughby’s tuition.

Willoughby said he made the right decision when he turned pro and said it makes sense for today’s top prep players to do the same.

“You got a chance to go play against your idols like Connie Hawkins, Julius Erving and George Gervin. You’ve got to do it,” he said. “You can go to school later.”

Dawkins and Malone became stars. Willoughby did not. After lighting it up at Dwight Morrow High in Englewood, N.J., he played for six teams over eight seasons, only one of them as a regular starter. That was in 1981-82, when he was with the Houston Rockets and averaged a career-high of nearly eight points a game.