This Just In: Larry Brown is the Grinch

They're the only one's straight out of high school or without four years of college and/or a minor league career. It's simple math.

NFL rookies are generally college grads, but baseball players have to spend more time in college than football players do. Football players are only required to have two years of college. Baseball players can be taken straight out of high school, but if they go to college, they have to be there three years. Also, with baseball players, many come right out of high school, but they play in the minor leagues for at least two years before coming to the majors, and they're usually there four years or more. Often, they work on getting their college degrees at the same time. So yes, there is a huge difference.

Its much more than how many college guys and straight out of high guys play in the NBA versus the other sports. There are only 35 players in the NBA straight from high school, roughly only 8% of the total NBA. There are 55 foreign players, where their education cannot be guaranteed after playing years in traveling Euro-Leagues. I agree, there are huge differences in the types of athletes, but Nate Robinson spent three years at Washington before he left for the draft, he certainly wasn't a straight to the pros jump. The issue is much broader, is a socio-economic issue, rather than a sport by sport thing. A certain type of people play basketball, just like certain types of people play football/baseball/etc, and I'm not just talking physical type, attitude is also very important. Football players grow up with a structured environment, always running plays, offenses, defenses, even in backyard football. Baseball has a clear set of rules, which it holds dear, and are observed in every playground in the world. However, basketball is completely different, many of the players haven't been coached for their entire careers until they reach the pros. This is just a dusting off of a much larger issue, one not for this forum, so I'll leave alone, the issues between types of players run much deeper than minor league experience and college education. They're engrained much earlier into the development of the psyche of each individual player, and represent larger problems in our society.

Excellent point, Tartan.

How do you explain his success with the Pistons?

I agree with cpcp. I never got that argument. The game has passed him by? He's one year removed from a Finals appearance, and two years removed from an NBA title. I never understood the statement that the game has passed him by. How many years did Pat Riley go without a championship? Close to 20? I never heard people say the game had passed him by, or that his style didn't win anymore. So what's with this statement about Brown?

How many players have you seen win a championship, and the next year fall completely down? It can happen to coaches as well.

When making your point about what players think, probably best to use guys that are actually playing. Miller and Robinson are retired.