Jeremy Tyler definitely took the road less traveled to get to this point in his basketball career. The 19-year old is going through the NBA pre-draft process fresh off of two years of playing professional ball overseas.
His journey is similar to what Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks went through, except Jennings didn’t drop out of high school to play professionally.
After his junior season at San Diego high school, Tyler knew he was at least two years from playing in the NBA, but he didn’t want to wait to go pro so he signed with Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Super League.
His one year in Israel was forgettable, but he played one more season overseas… this time with the Tokyo Apache of Japan’s professional basketball league.”I wanted to grow up,” Tyler said. ”I wanted to challenge myself on the basketball court and I wanted to challenge myself as a young man.””I just want the honor of playing in the NBA and showing I belong.”‘
He averaged 9.9 points and 6.4 rebounds in 15.4 minutes per game in 33 games.
Here’s what he said about his experience overseas:
”Being overseas has definitely been an advantage,” Tyler said. ”I see it. I feel it. I know it. I mean there is a lot of good guys in this draft and a lot of good guys been with all these teams. I am not going to knock their game. They are all good, but I feel like I view basketball in another way where I’ll be successful in the NBA.”Two years ago, scouts thought he could be the first overall pick in this year’s draft. Now, as he works out for various teams, he’s projected to be a second round choice:
”It was frustrating the first year,” he said. ”I was killing them in practice, but I had to realize it was not all about dunking. Really, it’s just not scoring a bucket.”
”Right now, I am just having fun coming to show what I can do and being the best that I can be,” Tyler said. ”Hopefully, I catch some eyes and some interest.” -Source
Can you say second round steal?
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