Be in the Long-term Top 25

Out of the 5,000 colleges and universities in the U.S., Georgetown is consistently ranked in the top 25. In 2019, Forbes magazine ranked Georgetown #15. The only other schools from the top 8 basketball conferences ranked in the top 15 are Stanford, Cal and Duke. Georgetown has a stronger basketball tradition than Stanford and Cal. And it’s located in a city with a lot more fun things to do and a lot more learning opportunities than Duke. Georgetown was ranked the #5 university in the country by Washington Monthly magazine, and was #2 in the earnings performance of its graduates, behind only Harvard.

You will get an elite level education that will help you your whole life. In 20 years, nobody will even remember which teams were in the top 25, other than maybe the Final Four. For example, can you name more than a few teams that were in the top 25 in 2001? Or even 10 years ago in 2011? But 20 years, 30 years and 40 years from now, your Georgetown education and diploma will still be helping you economically and personally.

This is what Hall of Fame NBA star Alonzo Mourning said about his Georgetown experience: “I know for a fact that four years of college – my development in school – was the biggest thing that ever happened in my life. Those four years were the most exciting four years of my life. …. “We live in a world right now where if you can’t communicate, you can’t survive. It’s not about how much money you have. It’s: Can you communicate? So reading, writing, speaking – those particular things are extremely important.”

Mourning noted that even for the players who do reach the NBA, a strong education will help them excel at that level: “developing a stronger intellect and helping them make better decisions will help enhance the accomplishments of that next level, so that they can take care of their families for years and years to come.

While your parents may not be right about some things, they are right about the importance of which college you go to: “We built our program on Mom and Dad saying, “What are you doing? You gotta look at Georgetown” because they understand the degree.” – Head Coach of Georgetown Soccer Brian Wiese after winning the National Championship.

ADD: examples of some professors from UN Ambassadors etc etc.

MAYBE: find research on average salaries of gtown grads

Georgetown OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM LEARNING:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/welcome-freshmanyour-degree-is-obsolete

INNOVATION

ALSO: add a link to the page of past players in the NBA

AND: add the info the Sivers section about self-eval etc.

GET LIST OF GTOWN players who returned for a degree, and if Alonzo didn’t, delete that from section

Pro basketball careers are very short, but top educations last forever

Most college players think they’ll be pros, but only 1.2% are drafted by the NBA

More than three-quarters of men’s basketball players in Division I think it is at least “somewhat likely” they will play professionally.  But only 1.2% end up being drafted by an NBA team. For players who are not amazing enough to be “one-and-done,” the percentage in about .08%. 

Every year there are about 4,500 players in Division 1 basketball. Only about 52 of them are drafted by the NBA (about 1 out of every 100 players) and roughly 18 of them are one and dones. Nearly all one and dones were top 30 recruits in high school and probably would have been drafted straight out of high school if the one-and-done rule didn’t exist. That means if you’re not ranked in the top 30 of your entire recruiting class, you have a fraction of 1% chance of playing in the NBA.

In fact, you could be a great player in college and not get drafted in the NBA. For example, Shamorie Ponds averaged 19.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 2.6 steals his junior year, and was First-Team All Big East two years in a row, but wasn’t drafted. Scottie Reynolds was a consensus AP First-Team All American averaging 18.3 points a game, and led Villanova to the Final Four. He was the 2nd highest scorer in Villanova history but wasn’t drafted.

Charles Smith was the Big East Player of the Year in 1989 and was selected to play on the U.S. Men’s Olympic Team in 1988. But he was not drafted by any NBA team. So keep in mind that even if you manage to somehow become the best player in one of the top conferences in the country, you still might not get drafted. 

The president of the entire NCAA, Mark Emmert, said that “athletes often have incredibly unrealistic perceptions of their professional prospects.” Emmert said it’s important for people to be truthful with high school players about the fact that most of them won’t play pro, and that they need to have a strong back-up plan: “How can we help them understand the realities of what that looks like? What can we change to give them a more realistic sense of it? How do we get a handle on that? How can we provide them with a greater sense of the realities and what that looks like?”

Well, we will be truthful with you. Even if you don’t choose Georgetown, our advice is that you should pick a college that is a top-rated school AND that also has a strong reputation for integrity in actually teaching its student-athletes. Of course consider other factors like what part of the country you want to be in, but you can find a school that’s top rated academically (with a solid basketball program) and a reputation for actually educating their players.

Two examples are Stanford and Duke. They are highly-rated and also have a good reputation for ensuring that their players receive an education. There are a several huge state schools that are highly-rated academically with good basketball programs, but the public wonders whether the players are going to class and learning or are being used by the schools to make money. A degree from those schools won’t mean as much.

Georgetown has a stellar reputation for educating its players. Hundreds of articles have been written about Georgetown having a deflated basketball in its sports center to remind players to prepare themselves for life after basketball, which will be most of their life. Georgetown is a model for making sure players receive a good education, including providing one-on-one tutors to help with learning. 

Getting a degree for free from a top school should be your reward for having been a high school star. Don’t miss out on your reward. If on top of that you also play pro, then great. In fact, Georgetown has one of the best track records in the country for sending players to the NBA relative to their high school rankings. You can see all of the past NBA players here.

In fact, one thing NBA teams like about Georgetown players is the character they’ve developed playing there. NBA teams evaluate not just talent, but attitude and character. And Georgetown excels at developing those things. In case you’re not a lock to be one-and-done and after college you don’t end up playing pro, you should at minimum walk away with a degree from a highly-ranked academic university and a good education. Here’s some more info worth thinking about.

The average NBA career is only 5.9 years

Most players drafted in the 2nd round (31 to 60) get little to no playing time. This makes it very hard to sustain a playing career past the first year or two because you don’t develop and you get rusty. But even many players in the first round don’t get much playing time and don’t get much of a chance to prove themselves.

Luke Jackson was the #10 draft pick in 2004 after he put up 21.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists in his final season at Oregon. He was First Team All-Conference in the Pac-10 and led the league in scoring. He was great in college at scoring, rebounding and passing.  but played just 4 seasons in the NBA with only 3.5 points and 1.2 rebounds per game.

Thomas Robinson was the 2012 Big 12 Player of the Year at Kansas and went to the Final Four. He was a consensus First-Team All-American and ESPN national Player of the Year. He was selected #5 in the 2012 draft, but he got only 15 minutes per game his first year, and 12 minutes per game his second year. He was out of the league three years later.

The average career of those under 7′ tall is 4 years

Player height directly relates to length of playing career. The NBA average height is 6ft 7in. If you’re smaller than that, your chances of being drafted and your number of years will be lower. For example, players 7ft or taller average 6 years. Players between 6ft and 7ft average 4 years. Likewise, guards and forwards play fewer years than centers.

Nolan Smith was a First Team All-American, ACC Player of the Year and All-Defensive Team in 2011 at Duke, and won the national championship in 2010. He was drafted in the first round, but lasted just two years in the league. 

JaJuan Johnson at Purdue made the Big 10 All-Conference member three years in a row, and was 1st team All-America, Big 10 Player of the Year and Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year. He averaged over 20 points and 8 rebounds. He was drafted in the first round, but played just 36 games his first year. He was traded during the summer to the Rockets and cut before his 2nd season began. He never played in the NBA after that.

So even if you deep down think you’re amazing enough to be the #1 player in one of the best four conferences in the country and 1st-team All-America, it doesn’t mean much in the NBA.

For those who don’t win a major NBA Award, the average career is 4 years

For players who don’t win a major NBA award such as Defensive Player of the Year or MVP, the average player only plays for 4 years. If a player is under 7 feet tall AND doesn’t win a major NBA award, on average he is out in less than 3 years.

The very, very rare player who wins a major NBA award often has a long career, but this skews the averages and creates an illusion. For every non-7 footer like Kobe Bryant who plays 20 years, there are literally 16 guys who are gone in three years. 16 players times 3 years per player is 48 years played. That plus Kobe’s 20 years is 68 years played. 68 divided by 17 players is an average of 4 years. 

It’s extremely hard to win a major NBA award: the average Hall of Famer only won 1.93awards in their whole career. So unless you get drafted AND somehow make it to the elite levels of the NBA, you can estimate only about 3 years in the NBA. That is if you’re in the .08% of non-one and dones who get drafted.

For example, Russ Smith won a national title for Louisville in 2013 and was named a consensus first-team All-American and among the 10 finalists for national Player of the Year. He was drafted by the 76ers, but played only 27 games over the course of two seasons in the NBA averaging only 5 minutes per game. Jared Sullinger was a First-Team All-American two years in a row at Ohio State and was drafted #21, but lasted only four years in the league.

Most of the 18 one-and-dones are drafted in the first 40 picks, and a few international players are usually in the top 40 picks. If you’re not incredible enough to be a one-and-done, yet you do manage to be drafted, it would probably be between 41 and 60.

On top of that, players drafted in the bottom half of the second round usually get only either a single year of guaranteed pay or no guarantee and a two-way contract. The two-way contract is relatively low pay and you only get paid more for the small number of games you’re called up to the NBA team. Also, about 30% to 45% of your salary those years will get eaten up by state and federal taxes.

While it’s true that some college players play overseas after graduating from college, it’a also true that the level of pay is not high and the length of career is not long. When your playing days are done, you will benefit from a Georgetown education and diploma.

Why are high school players over-confident?

One reason players are not realistic is that people in their high school world have been telling them for years that they’re bound for the NBA. That’s because the player was the best in their school or the best in their league or even in the history of their school. So people tied to that school or league including local media just assume that means the person must be great enough for the NBA. And they don’t hesitate to tell the player that as if it’s a fact, and not simply an overly enthusiastic opinion. Some agents and scouts may say the same thing in order to curry favor with the player.

Dan Lebowitz, the executive director of Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, explains: “By the time a basketball or football player gets to Division I or Division II, they’ve already been a star in their own town and community. They have been elevated to celebrity status at such a young age, before their frontal lobe has even fully developed. It creates a high confidence level, but also a delusion around what’s actually possible.”  

Another reason players are unrealistic is that in the recent past, they rose to be the cream of the crop. So they incorrectly assume they will do the same at the college level and then yet again at the NBA level. They might say to themselves: “At the start of high school, few people thought I’d be a star of high school, yet I was. So the same will happen at the college level, even though most of the 4,500 people at that level were also a high school stars.”

Humans always over-estimate their ability

Another reason high school players aren’t realistic enough is that most humans over-estimate their abilities. As Gershon Tenenbaum, a sports psychology professor at Florida State University, notes, the problem is a “self-bias phenomenon.”

Experts say the key to success is keeping your vanity in check

One of the best books that describes this is the best-selling book “Ego is the Enemy.” Consider what Nike’s Director of International Basketball George Raveling says: “This is a book I want every athlete, aspiring leader, entrepreneur, thinker and doer to read. ” Oh yeah, Raveling is also a Hall of Fame coach, so he knows  what athletes should know. If you don’t want to read the whole book, famous businessman Derek Sivers summarizes it here.

Here are a few useful quotes:

“Vain men never hear anything but praise. What am I missing right now that a more humble person might see?”

“The power of being a student is not just that it is an extended period of instruction, it also places the ego and ambition in someone else’s hands. There is a sort of ego ceiling imposed – one knows that he is not better than the ‘master’ he apprentices under.”

“What we require in our ascent is purpose and realism. Updating your appraisal of your talents in a downward direction is one of the most difficult things to do in life – but it is almost always a component of mastery.”

“That on which you so pride yourself will be your ruin. Ego crosses out what matters and replaces it with what doesn’t.”

HOW THIS RELATES TO YOUR CHOICE OF SCHOOL:

Your ego will tell you that going to a top school doesn’t matter because your ego is sure you’ll be a pro and make a lot of money at it. That could be one of the worst decisions of your life, and vanity is the culprit. Better to have some humility and say: “I’m hoping to make the NBA and earn a lot there, but given that I don’t have a crystal ball to know the future, and the odtds are that it won’t happen, I’ll choose a top school and cash in on all the benefits of that.”

Nearly every other high school student would love to go to a top school. Many have worked like mad for that opportunity. Turning it down would not be smart.  

Lastly, you have really almost nothing to lose by choosing a high-quality college given that there are at least 10 high-quality colleges that have good basketball programs and are in the top several conferences. Plus if you’re really great enough to be drafted in the NBA, then your quality of play will probably make the team good while you’re there.

If you go to the NBA before graduating, you can finish your degree later

If things turn out great and you become so talented in your first three years that you’re able to reach the NBA early, one of the nice things about Georgetown is that you’re welcome to come back in the future to complete your degree. This is for example what Alonzo Mourning did after an amazing NBA career. That’s how much he valued a Georgetown degree. 

NBA player Jeff Green finished his degree while he was still in the NBA by taking classes in the NBA’s off-season.