Page 17 - ARUBA TODAY

A17
Thursday 4 april 2019

Money,

opportunity ROARING

part of

one-and-

done’s 20’S

winding past

By EDDIE PELLS and LARRY
FENN
Associated Press
Spencer Haywood set the
stage, Michael Jordan
made it bigger and Kevin
Durant super-sized it when
he helped usher in the
one-and-done era. De-
cades after those players
made their groundbreak-
ing departures from col-
lege, March Madness and
the NBA’s mega-millions
have taken all the novelty
out of leaving early for the
pros.
In the present era of one-
and-done — a system that
begat college programs
that cater to kids in search
of a one-year stopover in-
stead of a diploma — the
decision about whether to
take off early for the NBA
isn’t so much one of ‘if’
but ‘when’ for hundreds of
players every year.
An Associated Press analy-
sis of NCAA Tournament
rosters over the last three
decades shows the ever-
expanding impact that
early entry, and especially
the one-and-done player,
has had on both the col-
lege game and the NBA Westbrook records triple-double,
draft.
In 2005, the year before leads Thunder past Lakers
the one-and-done rule
went into effect, there
were nine high schoolers
and one freshman drafted. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0)
Last season, there were no shoots as Los Angeles Lakers center Moritz Wagner,
high schoolers, and 13 of
the first 18 picks were one- left, defends in the second half of an NBA basketball
and-done. game, Tuesday, April 2, 2019, in Oklahoma City.
In the first year the AP stud-
ied, 1989, there were 13 Associated Press
early entries, five of whom Page 19
played in the NCAA Tour-
nament.

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