Ready or Not - Here J.J. Comes

Last week freshmen forward/center J.J. Hickson of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack declared his early entry in to the NBA draft.  While J.J. has not hired an agent, leaving him the opportunity to return to the college ranks, the question of whether he is ready to make that jump is in the air...

I will never claim to be the know all of anything, especially basketball. But I have noticed a change in how the NBA is being pursued. This is the day and age of the young NBA. I don’t have numbers, but I’m willing to bet the average age of an NBA team over the past 20 yrs has dropped noticeably.

Now, why is this something to write about?...I’m an NC State University Alum. Every sport, every book, every brick. I seen this movement towards players leaving early affect the dookies, and tarholes for years. But then it finally hit home when Cedric Simmons left. But how could we blame him? He dominated Sheldon Williams in a block battle that was all but inspiring. Even in the NCAA he ran circles around the whiz kid from Cal (yeah I don’t even remember the guy’s name, do you?) So to think, why would he come back? What did he have to learn? Well as it seems “a lot”. A first round draft pick by the NO Hornets, Ced was traded to Cleveland, demoted to D-league and then traded to Chicago.

Now this same perplexing dilemma is in front of yet another NC State big man. JJ Hickson. This young man is a athletic phenom. 6’9” 240lbs with quickness and a knack for muscling up shots in the paint. The kid shot 59% from the field and led the team in scoring and rebounding.

But from watching just about every game this season, there’s one place I’d loved to have seen him flourish, is in assists. I can’t count how many times JJ was double teamed and he either forced up a shot or had the ball stolen from him. The only player that started regularly that had less assists was Degand who only played 10 games. Considering the fact that the NBA now allows double teams, big men have to be able to pass out of them proficiently.

Now how does that affect a kid who likely has never had millions of dollars at his disposal? Not at all. If someone told you that your life’s work (and athletic talent) had prepared you to showcase yourself on an international stage doing something you love and you’ll be making millions to do so,…I ask,…what would you do? I’d have to say that I’d sign up immediately. But when you’re thrust into a world of politics, big business and couple in the fact that its all on you to improve your game now, you’ve got a whole other problem.

Its no longer about basketball, its about money. But what happened to honing your skills to the point of perfection, rather than “good enough”. I’m a greedy fan, so I have to say that I’d rather see all college players stay for 4yrs. Some of them are ready for the NBA when they leave college early, but more of them aren’t. To that I have say stay JJ, stay!