Kyrie Irving is a 6-2 freshman basketball guard who plays for Duke University. He played 8 games before a toe injury sidelined him for 3½ months. During those 8 games, he averaged 17.4 points, 5.1 assists. 1.5 steals, and shot 42% from behind the arc in 29 minutes per game. He returned to action during the NCAA Tournament. In 3 March Madness games, he averaged 17.6 points, 2 assists, 1.3 steals, and shot 50% from the 3-point line in 24 minutes per game. These numbers are pretty good for a college guard, but he only played in 11 games. This doesn't matter though for he can rebound next season, right? Wrong. Irving has announced he will enter the 2011 NBA Draft. He will not hire an agent until after the May 8th deadline for deciding to stay in school, just in case he changes his mind. But still, what is Kyrie Irving thinking?
Irving has stated his intent to jump to the NBA early to follow his dream. Apparently his dream is to play 11 out of a possible 37 games his freshman year and then jump to the NBA. I understand that college basketball players have a dream of playing in the NBA, but what's the rush if you haven't even played a full season of college basketball? If Irving stays at Duke another year, then it most likely will only heighten his draft status for 2012 due to teams being able to see more of him. Of course by staying he could also suffer a career-ending injury and never make it to the NBA, but that could happen at any point in time before the next NBA season. Speaking of the next NBA season, no one knows when that will be because nearly everyone who knows anything about the NBA is predicting a lockout for next season, including Kyrie Irving. So add lockout to little-time-on-the-court-as-a-freshman to the reasons why it is so baffling to hear Irving announce he is entering the 2011 NBA Draft.
Now obviously this isn't entirely Irving's fault. He was just given a choice, and he chose possibility of wealth and quick fame over honing his skills in college for another year. Many people would make the same choice, but the way he's doing it seems wrong. He technically didn't play a full year of college basketball, which is what every other freshman entering this year's draft did, or came very close to. The rule is that you have to be one year removed from college to enter the draft though. A rule I think the NBA should try to change. They would have trouble doing that as college athletes wanting to go pro but can't could sue the NBA saying they are blocking their right to participate in the professional basketball market. This is why I think the NBA should make it so that the rule says a player must play 1 full season in college before jumping. This will give players time to prepare for the NBA and mature as a person while avoiding weird situations like this one with Kyrie Irving.
The likelihood of the rule being rewritten, though, is slim to none. The same goes for the chance of Irving changing his mind and staying at Duke for another year. The reality of it all is that Irving is leaving and that he will most likely be one of the first players selected in the upcoming draft, if not the first. People like me will just have to accept this fact even though logic says otherwise. I personally should be rejoicing that Duke is losing a very talented player because I hate Duke athletics (it's a Big East thing), but I'm not. I feel for all the Duke students, alumni, and fans, and all college basketball fans really, for today we lost a good player. Everyone knows that the NBA isn't quite like NCAA basketball, and that play is different between the two. Just like everyone knows that many people will have this thought run through their head for quite some time: Irving is leaving, what the blue devil is this?
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=51267
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2011/news/story?id=6305059
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/150/duke-blue-devils