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N.B.A. Draft Will Close Book on High School Stars


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By HOWARD BECKPublished: June 28, 2005

By a quirk of fate, by a rule change he had nothing to do with and a movement that began long before anyone knew his name, Gerald Green is destined to become a curious footnote, perhaps even an icon, the face of an asterisked generation.

Joe Raymond/Associated Press

Gerald Green is expected to be the first high school player selected.



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Gerald Green played at Gulf Shores Academy in Houston.

Sometime tonight, Green will be called to the podium by N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern and be fitted with a baseball cap bearing some team's insignia. When he does, Green will morph from highly regarded basketball prospect to trivia question: who was the first high school player picked in the last draft that allowed high school players?



The age limit that Stern promoted and pressed for the last several years will be adopted when the league ratifies its new collective bargaining agreement in the next few weeks. Starting next year, a player must be 19 and a year removed from high school to apply for the draft.



So this year's crop of prep stars is unlike any other. They will not be remembered as the modern pioneers - Kevin Garnett (1995) and Kobe Bryant (1996) bear that honor and burden - but rather, as the last crusaders for an unpopular cause: the right of teenagers to get rich playing basketball.



Green, who played at Gulf Shores Academy in Houston, is expected to be the first of the prep stars to be taken in tonight's draft at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Green and Seattle Prep's Martell Webster are projected to be taken in the lottery, the draft's first 14 picks.



Nine other high school seniors are eligible to be drafted. A handful of foreign players also represent the final class of underage players.



Some teenagers will still appear on future N.B.A. rosters, provided they turn 19 by the end of the calendar year in which they are drafted. But barring another drastic philosophical change, there will never be another wunderkind to step straight from a high school graduation into an N.B.A. training camp.



"It makes history," Green said. "Even if we turn out to be the sorriest basketball players ever, we make history."



With that, Green smiled and laughed. With any luck, he will make the last generation look much better than that, and perhaps be the source of future debates on the wisdom of barring high school players.



But Green understands well the debate that preceded the new limit. He even came close to endorsing the rule.



"I guess it was a smart move, because there's a lot of players that come out of high school that are not really prepared," Green said. "Everybody's not LeBron James. I'm not LeBron James, Martell's not LeBron James, there's only one LeBron James. He came in ready and he dominated the league. There's a lot of players that have to get developed. Me, I've got to get developed. But I guess that age limit, that one year of college experience, can get you more developed and I think that's pretty good."



The last debate on the issue ended last week, when the National Basketball Players Association agreed to the league's request to put the 19-year-old limit in the new labor agreement. It represented a compromise on both sides. Stern lobbied for years for an age minimum of 20, saying he wanted his league's scouts and executives out of high school gyms.



Although Bryant, Garnett, James, Tracy McGrady and others have come from high school to become superstars, a greater number have struggled (Kwame Brown, Jonathan Bender, DeSagana Diop) and some have failed miserably (Leon Smith, Korleone Young). Many went undrafted and never made it to the league.



Yet the stardom of Garnett and Bryant in particular compelled general managers to start taking greater risks. No one wanted to be the executive who passed on the next great star.



McGrady was the only high school player taken in the 1997 lottery. But in 2001, the floodgates opened. The Washington Wizards made Brown the first prep player to be taken No. 1 over all. The second, fourth and eighth picks were also high school players - Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry and Diop.



Curry has become a solid center, and Chandler a valuable role player for the Chicago Bulls. But Brown remains an enigma, and Diop a forgotten man.



The new crop naturally believes it will fare better.



"I definitely think I'm ready for this," Webster said. "I've put my mind to it for the last three or four months before entering my name into the draft. You have to go into this process thinking, knowing that you can do it. You've got to be confident."



The challenge for Green, Webster and the others to adapt will be aided by another wrinkle in N.B.A. rules - the use of a minor league. For the first time, teams next season will be allowed to send young players - those with two years or less as a pro - to the National Basketball Development League.



It could be a curse and an advantage. Some of Green and Webster's predecessors languished on the bench for years while trying to develop their games and their bodies. McGrady did not become a star until his fourth season, after he left Toronto for Orlando. Jermaine O'Neal spent four dormant years in Portland before a trade made him a star in Indiana.



No one wants to trade the N.B.A. life for long bus rides and extended stays in Huntsville, Ala., or Columbus, Ga. But that may be what awaits the last class of high school stars.



"I don't want to be put in that situation," Webster said. "But if it happens, I just have to work my way up. It's going to be tough. It's not going to be easy no more."