On June 22, 2008, Brandon Jennings became a trendsetter.
He said ‘No’ to the current system of reaching his dreams of NBA basketball, heading overseas to play basketball for a year. He planned on returning to the states a year older, wiser, and ready to enter the NBA Draft. Jennings was drafted 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks the following year, made the All-Rookie First Team, and has since been a phenomenal player for the Bucks.
Ten months to the day after Jennings announced his intention to head overseas, Jeremy Tyler, the much heralded college product out of San Diego, did the exact same thing, skipping the advances of Louisville to spend a year outside of the United States, playing basketball and getting ready for the NBA.
Tyler’s journey abroad was not as successful as Jennings’s experience. Tyler started out with Israel’s Maccabi Haifa, but quit the team after playing just ten games between August 2009 and May 2010. Later that summer, after returning to San Diego, Tyler signed up with Japan’s Tokyo Apache, and ended his overseas trip on a high note, playing in 33 games while averaging 10 points and 5.5 rebounds in just 15.4 minutes per game.
Now, Tyler has entered his name into the 2011 NBA Draft. As a 6’11”, 263-pound center, scouts have begun to drool over the man who spurned the NCAA. His combine workout reminded many around the league why he was such a highly prized collegiate recruit before going abroad. Prior to the workout, Tyler was expected to be a mid-second round draft pick. Now many, including ESPN’s Chad Ford, project the Californian to be selected in the latter half of the first round, with still a month to go before draft day.
Tyler’s ability was certainly hindered by his decision to move abroad, and if he had gone the college route, it’s very possible he would have been a lottery pick. But the near 20-year-old has matured during his adversity, and he has proven through workouts that he is NBA ready, both mentally and physically.
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