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Sunday, 18 February 2007 |
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by Mike Ruggieri
There are a lot of people that debate whether the NCAA is better than the NBA or vice versa.
I, however, want to make the point that basketball is simply better than it has been in the past ten years.
The level of play has heightened in both leagues- which can be attributed to the players.
There are also other factors, which include better consistency in pro teams as well as more parity in the NCAA.
The
new NBA ruling on age has forced players to participate in college for
at least a year. This has been the first season that the rule has
impacted players, and with that we have seen an infusion in heavily
talented freshman.
There are two guys that would be considered at least first or second team All-Americans- Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.
There are also freshman like Brandan Wright, Tywon Lawson, Chase
Budinger, Thaddeus Young, Paul Harris, DJ Augustin and even Stephen
Curry of Davidson that have made huge impacts as either the best
player, or one of the best players, on prominent national teams.
Kevin Durant has been a little different though.
He came onto a team that was a second seed in the NCAA tournament last
year, but lost its top players in PJ Tucker and LaMarcus Aldridge.
Durant came in and immediately made an impact as one of the top players
in the country. He is averaging 25 points a game and 11 rebounds per
contest, but its not just the statistics, it is how he is doing it.
Durant is almost 50 percent from the field and almost 40 percent from the three-point line.
He has almost 150 attempts from beyond the arc, so it isn’t like he
doesn’t shoot much from there, and maintains a high percentage.
He has put up the best game of the year by far in his 37-point, 23
rebound, monster of a game against Texas Tech- a game that had Bob
Knight gushing over the kid.
He has posted 15 double doubles so far this season and with five more games he could legitimately make it 20.
So what has the new age limit done successfully for the NBA?
For one, the teams haven’t had to worry about taking a young guy and
having to groom him throughout the year. More importantly there has
been more consistency from teams that haven’t had to rely on young
talent, and instead been able to develop what they’ve had for years.
For instance, the Dallas Mavericks has been a team built on their
nucleus for the past five or so years.
The team drafted Josh Howard
four years ago and has improved every year to become one of the better
players in the league.
He hasn’t necessarily become one of the best stars, rather one of the best players suited for their team.
He is averaging almost 20 points a game and seven rebounds a contest,
but it’s all of the hard work he puts in that really matters.
He has been consistent to the facet that Dallas can count on him being the second option behind Nowitzki at all times.
The reason Dallas has maintained a strong core is their great guard
play in Devin Harris and Jason Terry, as well as their role players
like 6th man Jerry Stackhouse and platoon big men Erick Dampier and
DeSagana Diop.
These aren’t the only reasons the NBA has thrived this season.
They are doing it with superstars that didn’t exist four or five years ago.
Lebron James, Carmello Anthony, Dwayne Wade and Gilbert Arenas have all
made substantial impacts in the league and solidified themselves as
superstars for years to come.
The first three are all expected, but it is the latter that has taken many by surprise.
Arenas is a player that is regularly neglected but one who uses those time of rejection as motivation to improve.
He was a regular all-star snub for two years and was cut from the USA World Championships team.
He feels that every time he gets snubbed for something he needs to
publicly address the situation and then prove that he was better than
that.
So far it has proven to be the right formula for him. He is currently
second in the league in scoring and is starting in the All-Star game.
But it’s really the other things that make him so great.
It is the fact that he yells “Hibachi” every time he takes a shot, or
that he keeps a blog online that chronicles just exactly what he wants
to accomplish next, even if it is that he will score 85 points against
Duke University.
He has made himself into a star, because he is such a personality now
that he doesn’t even need as good a game to get by- but he does.
The NBA just keeps getting better, and when guys like Kevin Durant and Greg Oden get there it will keep getting better.
Because of the age limit put in place young guys are going to be forced
to go to college and make a name for themselves before they can play in
the NBA.
So guys like Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green or Monta Ellis who are pretty
good players in the NBA haven’t really been noticed because this is
their first real chance to shine.
They are all second year players that have started to excel this year.
Could you imagine if they all played in the NCAA for a season, garnered
tons of awards and accolades, then came to the NBA and made immediate
impacts.
Well, that is exactly what is about to happen. So be excited, because I sure am.
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