June 28, 2000

The trend continued this year, as two more high school basketball players decided to bypass college and head for the large paychecks of the NBA. But it's not all glamour and glory for those who have made the leap.

For every Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, who have already become stars, there is a Taj McDavid or an Ellis Richardson, who went undrafted and will never play in an NBA arena.

	Alton Ford of Milby High (Houston) decided against entering the NBA Draft.

"Is it good for the NBA that it's becoming common for high school kids to jump to the NBA?" asks Ryan Blake, who runs a scouting service for NBA teams prior to the draft. "It's hard to tell. The NBA doesn't really want the early entries from college or the high school kids. It makes their job tougher. It's difficult enough to judge college players who went for four years."

But judging McDavid's abilities wasn't tough at all. He made a name for himself while playing at Palmetto High in South Carolina, but he didn't measure up to NBA standards and his name wasn't called at the podium in the 1996 draft. The 6-foot-6 forward was last seen playing intramural basketball at Anderson College, an NAIA school.

Richardson's story isn't quite as fortunate. He averaged 21 points per game at Polytechnic High in California and declared for the draft in 1998. The 6-foot-4 guard would probably have been passed over even if the two-round draft had been extended to 10 rounds. He is now in an L.A. jail, awaiting trial on burglary charges.

But often the choice isn't so clear-cut.

Milby High (Houston, Texas) senior forward Alton Ford was recently faced with the decision of whether to turn pro or attend college. After months of contemplating, the 6-foot-9, 265-pound Ford decided to go to college. It was probably the best decision, since Ford was projected as a second-rounder at best.

Ford would have been the third high school player to make himself available for this year's draft, joining Darius Miles (East St. Louis High, Ill.) and DeShawn Stevenson (Washington Union High, Calif.), who are both expected to be taken in the first round.

Miles is a 6-foot-9, electrifying forward who resembles Garnett. He decided against attending St. John's for financial reasons and didn't have the necessary test scores to be eligible immediately anyway.

Stevenson, a 6-foot-5 guard, was planning on attending Kansas but was declared ineligible after a questionable 700-point jump in his SAT scores.

Ford's situation wasn't the first time the Southwest had a player who was on the fence about skipping college. Elsik High's (Alief, Texas) Rashard Lewis shocked the area when he turned pro in 1998. The 6-foot-10 forward sat through 31 picks, including a trio from his hometown Houston Rockets, and was caught on camera crying before Seattle took him with the No. 32 selection.

Even with the recent influx of high schoolers going straight to the NBA, college basketball analyst Dick Vitale feels that's not the biggest problem nowadays.

"We make too much of two kids who are going from high school to the NBA," says Vitale. "Then you see how many high school kids in baseball leave early and no one says anything. The bigger concern to me is a kid who is put on a college campus who really doesn't want to be there."

Carlos Hurt, who just finished his junior season at Elsik High, announced last week he will attend Louisville next season and is considered by many as the top point guard prospect in the country. The 6-foot-2 Hurt has been playing against Lewis all summer, but has no illusions about passing on college.

"It's not even an option for me," says Hurt. "He's 6-11 and I'm only 6-2. I'm going to college for sure."

The Colony High (The Colony, Texas) guard Bracey Wright, considered one of the top juniors-to-be in the nation, understands why players take the money and the lure of the NBA. But that won't be in his sights when he graduates in two years.

"I think people see it as they only have a few chances to get to the NBA and they take it," says Wright, who lists Arizona, Tennessee, Texas and Syracuse as potential college choices. "But I think most people, like DeShawn, should have gone to college."

Only time will tell.