Head—And—Ahead Of Their Class - Kobe Bryant; Kenyon Martin: one player who entered teh NBA after high school and one who attended college - this comparison, and others, are discussed

Basketball Digest, Jan, 2001 by Jason Levin

In today's early-entry dominated NBA, the best way to compare players is to go back to high school

ITS SPRING 1996. AMID CONCERNS about senior prom and final exams, two of the top high school players in the nation are busy mapping out their futures. One decides to enter the NBA draft. The other takes the more traditional route to the pros and accepts a college scholarships.

Fast forward to the present. The player who decided to go pro, is now, at the age of 22, entering his fifth year in the NBA. He's already been to the All-Star Game twice and been named to two All-NBA teams. And last June he won his first championship ring.

The college-bound player struggled in limited minutes as a freshman. He worked hard though, mid by his senior year he developed into a ferocious rebounder and devastating shot-blocker. He was easily the 2000 consensus player of the year and the No. 1 pick in last June's NBA draft.

Sometimes it is hard to remember--or believe--that NBA veteran Kobe Bryant and rookie Kenyon Martin finished high school at the same time.

Until recently, the best way to judge different eras in the NBA was by examining players by their college graduating class. But with the early-entry floodgates now wide open, a new set of standards is needed. Youth is clearly being served these days in the NBA, so any breakdown of the top young players in the league must--as ridiculous as it seems--be based on their high school graduating classes.

CLASS OF 1996

It feels right to open our examination then with Bryant, who would be a rookie too had he gone to college and stayed four years. Instead, the son of former NBA player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant chose to go pro straight out of Lower Merion (Pa.) High School. It was a good decision. Bryant hit the pro jackpot, ending up on the Los Angeles Lakers via a trade with the Charlotte Hornets. The Lakers, a strong, solid franchise. were able to bring Bryant along slowly. He averaged just about 15 minutes a game his first year as he got the opportunity to learn from such legends as Jerry West and Magic Johnson.

Bryant is now firmly entrenched as an NBA superstar, and, for better or worse, he is an inspiration to every talented high school player who thinks he's got what it takes to go straight to the pros.

The Indiana Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal is the other player from the class of '96 to go straight to the pros. His is a more cautionary tale. Stuck deep on the Portland Trail Blazers bench for four long years, this season in Indiana will be the first time he'll be called upon to play real minutes. The jury is still out on whether the thin jumping-jack will ever year. A disappointment with the Philadelphia 76ers, Thomas was shipped to Milwaukee in March 1999. Thomas again appeared uninspired before coming on in the last half of last season. The versatile forward became a go-to guy in the playoffs, and parlayed that performance into a massive free-agent contract in the offseason. The Bucks are banking on the the hope that Thomas has turned the corner to stardom, but there are some who think the 23-year-old's playoff performance was an aberration.

Mike Bibby, another player with NBA bloodlines (his estranged father, Henry, played in the NBA from 1972-81), went to Arizona and promptly conquered the college world, leading the Wildcats to the 1997 national title. He stuck around for his title defense making his move for the money. After a decent rookie year for the Vancouver Grizzlies in the lock-out-shortened 1998-99 season, the ultracomposed point guard stepped up his game last season and finished eighth in the league in assist with 8.1 per game.

Two other super-athletic talents from this class, Steve Francis and Shawn Marion, went the junior-college route before stopping off for a year at Maryland and UNLV respectively. Their more circuitous routes worked just fine, as Francis, of course, was the co-Rookie of the Year for the Houston Rockets last season, while Marion provided a huge lift for the Phoenix Suns off the bench.

The one who stayed in college for all four years is the New Jersey Nets' Martin, and in a way, his decision worked out as well as Bryant's, considering he was the top pick in the 2000 draft.

CLASS OF 1995

Going back one year, to the class of 1995, you find the player who really jump-started the high school-to-the-NBA pipeline. Kevin Garnett. Although his Minnesota Timberwolves have yet to win a playoff series, the South Carolina native has struck gold financially and professionally, signing the biggest deal in league history at the time, and maturing and developing into a unique superstar.

The '95 class is chock full of talent, the best of whom all left school early. Stephon Marbury left Georgia Tech after one season and Shareef Abdur-Rahim bolted California in kind. Ron Mercer took his NCAA title and departed Kentucky after two years and Paul Pierce left Roy Williams and Kansas after three seasons. A pair of high-flying North Carolina teammates, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, both left for the NBA after their junior years. It didn't take long for Carter and Jamison to learn what life as a pro was all about, as the close friends were traded for each other on draft day.