Lebron James
March Madness is upon us, folks, but the only madness we’ve seen in college basketball as of late are scandals and investigations. Recently, we’ve seen several top tier college basketball programs, like Arizona and Louisville, come under fire due to recruiting violations.
The NCAA is a corrupt organization—we all know that. Players like LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma have spoken out about the NCAA’s flawed system. One common criticism from fans and players is that players can’t profit off of their own skill and talent in college, but universities and the NCAA can. In fact, the FBI is currently investigating players for allegedly accepting benefits and money from an agency.
These so-called scandals can be as small as an athlete’s mother accepting an expensive meal, which was the case for Duke star big man Wendell Carter. It sounds silly, but it’s a system that can’t be overpowered unless there’s alternative route.
Recently, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has publicly stated that the NBA is exploring possibilities of creating that alternative route for prospects. We’ve seen high school stars like Brandon Jennings, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Terrance Ferguson take the international route to play professionally. Many have suggested opening the NBA G-League up as an avenue for high school stars or, even better, repealing the age limit for the NBA Draft to allow high schoolers to enter the draft once again.
Let’s be real: NBA prospects don’t need the NCAA as much as the NCAA needs them. Many NBA stars have developed and built their brands without ever suiting up under the rules of the NCAA. We’ve seen stars develop internationally and straight from high school. From LeBron James and Dwight Howard making that direct leap from high school to Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki making that roundabout leap overseas, they’ve all reached their potential without the middleman NCAA. Here are 20 NBA stars who didn't play college basketball.
Kristaps Porzingis
Is it too early to put Porzingod on this list? Nope. He’s a 22-year old All-Star, and even after his ACL injury, he’s on pace to end up as one of the all-time greats in NBA history. Let’s hope he gets healthy soon so he can continue his path to superstardom.
Lou Williams
Drafted out of South Gwinnett High School, Williams is a good example of how a high school player can grow in the NBA system. Williams didn’t play much in his first few years, so he was sent to D-League, where he played well and eventually got called up once the Philadelphia Sixers traded Allen Iverson. Williams then became the player we know today: a bonafide bucket-getter.
Tyson Chandler
Tyson Chandler never really lived up to being the No. 2 pick of the 2001 draft out of Dominguez High School, but he has put together a damn good career. From his 18-year old days as a Chicago Bull to his 35-year old days as a Phoenix Sun, he’s been an impact player in every season of his career.
Peja Stojakovic
If we’re not there already, we’re getting to that stage where young basketball fans in their teens don’t know who Peja Stojakovic is, or that he’s one of the best shooters ever to touch a basketball and has been pretty clutch on numerous occasions.
Vlade Divac
If you don’t know Peja, you probably don’t know Vlade Divac. Divac is one of seven players in NBA history to record 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots. Yup—he’s up there with names like Tim Duncan, Shaq, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was only a one-time All-Star, but he was a very productive player for most of his 15-year career.
Marc Gasol
Marc Gasol actually could’ve gone to college after he dominated his Tennessee high school, but he opted to go to back to Spain. He made the right decision, as he tore up the competition in the ACB league, and ultimately returned to the states to become a three-time All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year honoree.
Manu Ginobili
Of Manu Ginobli, Gregg Popovich told Tim Duncan, “This guy is coming, and nobody in the U.S. knows how good he is.” As usual, Pop was right. Drafted as the 57th pick in the 2002 draft, Ginobili grew into one of the greatest international players of all-time. At 40 years old, he can still give you 20 points on any night.
Jermaine O’Neal
It took Jermaine O’Neal about four years to get it going, but when he got it going, he became a beast. Out of Eau Claire High School, O’Neal was a six-time All-Star and garnered All-NBA Second Team honors in 2004.
Amar’e Stoudemire
One year of college would have been useless for Amar’e Stoudemire—just watch his high school tape. As a rookie, he dropped 38 points on the Timberwolves. If Amar’e had never had knee problems, we might be talking about one of the greatest power forwards ever to play the game.
Shawn Kemp
Shawn Kemp technically committed to and enrolled at the University of Kentucky, but he never actually played college ball because he failed to reach the required SAT score. Like Stoudemire, there probably wasn’t a point in Kemp going to college, anyway, as his physicality and athleticism were unmatched. He’d go on to embarrass several NBA players on posterizing dunks, and reach the All-Star Game six times in his career.
Yao Ming
Imagine Yao Ming playing college basketball as a 7-foot-6 skilled big man, consistently guarded by 6-foot-8 frontcourt players—it would be a cheat code. It was already hilarious watching Yao cook bigs like Joel Przybilla in the league, because they had no answer for him.
Pau Gasol
The Gasol brothers are just different, but one thing they have in common is that they skipped out on college ball. Like his brother Marc, Pau played professionally in Spain prior to his arrival in the NBA. Once he got to the league, Gasol averaged 17.6 points per game off the bat; in his 17 seasons in the NBA, he has never averaged less than 10 points and seven rebounds per game. He might be remembered as Kobe’s second sidekick, but he was much more than that.
Tony Parker
The Spurs just have a knack for finding and developing international talent. Tony Parker’s career will be overshadowed by playing with the greatest power forward of all-time and one of the greatest coaches in sports, but his own accomplishments shouldn’t be forgotten. He’s a four-time NBA champ, Finals MVP, six-time All-Star, and four-time All-NBA honoree. Tony Parker = pure winner.
Dwight Howard
It’s fair to say Dwight Howard made the right decision when he decided not to go to college. We may clown him now, but Howard has put together a Hall of Fame career. He’s an eight-time All-Star, with three Defensive Player of the Years and eight All-NBA awards. And he’s still a productive player, despite falling victim of the evolution of the game.
Tracy McGrady
Fresh out of Mount Zion Christian Academy, it took Tracy McGrady some time to adjust to the NBA. But like Jermaine O’Neal, once he got going, he took off. After playing behind his cousin Vince Carter for much of his time in Toronto, McGrady took his talents to Orlando to create his own legacy. It worked, and now he gets to call himself an NBA Hall of Famer.
Dirk Nowitzki
Dirk Nowitzki is one of the most revolutionary players in the game of basketball. A 7-footer shooting threes and long jumpers better than most guards? Unreal. His patented post game is out of this world, and at 39 years old, the German-bred big man is still averaging almost 13 points per game. Dirk was a stretch four before it was cool and popular. He was also the first NBA player to be selected to the All-NBA First Team without going to a high school or college in the United States.
Moses Malone
Moses Malone signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Maryland but opted to go pro in the ABA instead. His resume speaks for itself: twelve NBA All-Star selections, three NBA MVPs, and a Finals MVP. The Chairman of the Boards was a beast.
Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett failed to reach the eligibility requirement on his ACT, so he was pretty much forced to go pro. But it worked out well for him, as he was selected No. 5 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves and put together a solid rookie season. From there, Garnett took off, making the All-Star team in 14 of the next 15 seasons, including his MVP season in 2004. Failing the ACT was just a blessing in disguise.
Kobe Bryant
Can you imagine Kobe Bryant as a Duke Blue Devil? It almost happened—he admitted it himself.
No doubt Kobe would’ve led Duke team to an ACC win, and if he’d stayed a few more years, he would have teamed up with Elton Brand and Shane Battier to create a super team in college basketball. We can dream, can’t we? Instead, Kobe went to the league and became a pretty good player.
LeBron James
The question isn’t whether or not LeBron should have gone to college. No, the real question is: should LeBron have entered the draft as a 17-year old instead? He was a man amongst boys in high school, but even in his first year in the NBA, there was no match for him. LeBron has been in the league for 15 years now, and we’ve yet to see him struggle. We usually see stars like him work through slow starts to their careers, but LeBron simply went from putting up All-Star numbers to putting up Hall of Fame numbers.