June 28, 2000

Bill Willoughby will watch this year's NBA Draft with a certain sense of paternal pride. With two high schoolers likely to be snatched in the first round and another 10 players who are not yet college juniors slated to go among the first 50 players, Willoughby can"t help reliving his own pioneering draft days.

	Bill Willoughby has become an advocate for players earning their college degrees.

It hasn't been all that long since Willoughby became only the third high school player to jump directly to the pros as a 6-foot-8, 205-pound swingman and 1975 graduate of Dwight Morrow High (Englewood, N.J.).

Of course, the pro basketball landscape has changed a bit since then. The shorts are much longer and the lure of fame and fortune much greater. Willoughby played nine seasons for six organizations, and his peak salary was $275,000 a year. Originally drafted by the Atlanta Hawks with the first pick of the second round (19th overall) as an 18-year-old schoolboy sensation, his career was over at 27. That gives Willoughby a unique perspective on this year"s draft.

"I can see why so many kids are coming out, and I don't have any problem with it," says Willoughby, who, along with Moses Malone (Petersburg High, Va., 1974) and Darryl Dawkins (Maynard Evans High, Fla., 1975), became scholastic hoop pioneers in consecutive drafts a quarter-century ago.

"When I came out, there were only 18 teams, and there was no dunking and no 3-pointers in high school or college," he adds. "The high school game is more like the pro game now, so the transition is more natural. Plus, there are 29 teams now, which means there are over 100 more jobs. The key is, these guys still need a plan for life after basketball."

Willoughby isn't content to stand by and merely preach at folks. As a part-time consultant for the NBA at large providing counsel in conjunction with the league's rookie orientation programs, he has taken his message to the people who need it most. The former pro guard has also worked individually with New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets players on encouraging the completion of college degree work.

"Most of these guys don't know what they want to do if it wasn't for pro basketball," says Willoughby. "It took me a long time to want to go to school and realize the importance of it, because basketball is something you dreamed of when you were a kid and you can take care of yourself and family with the money you make.

"We need to let kids and adults and parents know that you can go get a degree and be an important person in society. You may not be a role model like when you played ball, but then again, by going back to school you may."

And Willoughby knows first-hand how long and winding the road to self-sufficiency, educational and otherwise, can be. He spent a decade in a legal battle against a hired advisor who mishandled his finances during his playing career, finally winning a $1 million judgment in 1994. Willoughby returned to school at Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck, N.J.) that same year and has 11 credits remaining before graduating as a communications major.

"You trust people with millions of dollars, and you can get robbed of your money," says Willoughby, who bounced around various youth recreation positions when his career ended. "Those sort of things would have never happened to me if I'd have had a rookie program that talked about the important things."

"We have a problem that the NCAA has to address more than high school kids jumping to the NBA, and that's the kids coming into college for one or two years and then leaving," agrees ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale. "We have to do something to entice them. Why not give them the option of borrowing $50,000 a year and then pay it back when they become pros. We have too many guys on the street telling these kids that they will be the next Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett."

There have been plenty of promising teen draft picks since 1995, when Garnett became the first high schooler in 20 years to jump straight to the NBA. Not all of those selections have traveled the same road as Garnett, who inked the richest long-term deal in NBA history - $126 million over six years - in 1997. For those players who aren't the next Garnett, Willoughby knows there must be contingency plans.

"I want to get everybody that went to the pros - regardless of high school or hardship or if they didn't get their (college) degree in four years - to go back and get their degree or finish what they started," he says. "You've got kids idolizing you for the sneakers, the commercials and the jerseys. So let them know you can be a well-rounded person. If I have to start this (process) by reaching the high school people (in the draft), so be it."

Bill Willoughby is available for seminars or individual counsel and can be contacted through the National Basketball Retired Players Association, the XNBA, at 1-877-962-2669.