THE kids ARE ALL RIGHT

Sporting News, The, July 2, 2001 by Sean Deveney

Drafting high school players has a history of paying off, even if NBA executives don't like to admit it

Three years ago, on draft day at GM Place in Vancouver, Rashard Lewis sat in a back room wearing the best suit he owned, a tan number with a white shirt and bright tie. He was one of just 25 players who were invited to attend the draft, and he was light-headed with expectation. He had just finished four years at Elsik High School in Alief, Texas (a Houston suburb) but passed on a college career at the University of Houston, like his mother wanted, to be here, at the NBA draft.

He was expecting to be a first-round pick--how could he not be? He met another kid who made the jump from high school to the league, Kobe Bryant, that winter, and Bryant told Lewis to "follow your heart." Lewis' heart said "NBA." He had done well in pre-draft workouts, especially for his hometown Rockets, who had three first-round picks. The Rockets, according to Lewis, said they would take him.

But Lewis only could sit and watch as happy draftees were awarded handshakes, awkward-fitting caps and the comfort of knowing a guaranteed first-round contract soon would follow. Houston took Michael Dickerson at No. 14 and Bryce Drew at No. 16. Lewis' smile, so bright earlier in the evening, disappeared. No. 18 was the Rockets' third pick, and they went with Mirsad Turkcan. Lewis felt his chest collapse. His eyes watered. He sat in the back room, alone, periodically shown on national TV as added humiliation. Lewis was, mercifully, selected by the Sonics with the third pick in the second round, No. 32 overall.

"It was very emotional and disappointing," Lewis says. "Knowing that I was supposed to go in the first round but went in the second round brought tears to my eyes."

Lewis' situation was not a disappointment for the wags and wonks commenting on the draft. After three consecutive drafts with a high school player chosen in the lottery, the 1998 draft was seen as a stand made by the league against underqualified high school players. Four high schoolers put their names in consideration for the draft, but only Al Harrington was chosen in the first round, and he slipped to No. 25. Lewis and Korleone Young were second-rounders, and Ellis Richardson was not drafted.

The message was clear: Go to college, because the NBA won't keep taking chances on teenagers.

"The big gamble usually backfires," Hawks general manager Pete Babcock said at the time. "For every Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, there are many, many more who just aren't ready."

The NBA has a dirty little secret, though. It simply is not true that for every Bryant there are many more failures. The truth is, when it comes to high school draft picks, there are many more successes than washouts. That's why, three years after the 1998 draft was to put an end to overzealous prepsters with dollar signs in their eyes, teams were preparing to draft a record number of high school players in this week's draft.

Take Lewis, for instance. He slipped to the second round, but he since has become the cornerstone of the Sonics' future, a 6-10 forward who shoots 43 percent on 3-pointers. Harrington has become a starter for the Pacers. Young played three games in the NBA and now is in the International Basketball League, but he was the 40th pick and hardly can be considered a failure on the league's part. No. 40 picks rarely make it in the NBA, and three of the four selections ahead of Young (Jerome James, Casey Shaw and DeMarco Johnson) are out of the league, too.

Fact is, the NBA is very good at choosing high school players. Consider the list of prep players drafted since 1995: Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O'Neal, Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Young, Lewis, Harrington, Leon Smith, Jonathan Bender, Darius Miles and DeShawn Stevenson. Garnett, Bryant and McGrady are All-Stars, and O'Neal, Lewis and Miles have the potential to join them soon.

Two players on the list--Young and Smith--did not last long in the league, but Young still is playing professional basketball and Smith had personal problems that probably would have haunted him even if he had gone to college.

Don't expect to see league officials crowing over this success, though.

Drafting kids out of high school still makes coaches, scouts and executives uncomfortable. Just walking into a high school gym and sitting through a game while surrounded by adolescents and ardent parents is, "embarrassing and a little degrading," as one assistant coach says. Though they continue to do it, NBA people still feel a pang of remorse when it comes to drafting high school kids. But they are too good at it to stop now.

"It was much better for us when they finished four years and came to us," says Pacers president Donnie Walsh. "That's not happening now. They're all coming out. In order for it to stop, you're going to have to have failures, and we haven't had a lot of failures."

Judging the drafting of high school players on the statistics and All-Star appearances of the players chosen takes a limited view of the situation. College offers time for personal development and education, not to mention physical development and the development of a player's skills.