Durant too good not to go straight to pros
Kevin Durant did what he had to do.
I mean that in a literal sense.
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| Really, what more is Kevin Durant going to show us at the college level? (AP) |
No surprise there.
Nor should it be.
Durant is guaranteed to be no worse than the second pick in the NBA Draft, selected only behind Ohio State's freshman center Greg Oden. He'll sign a deal with Nike worth at least $20 million and be in position to financially take care of his family before he even turns 19, meaning this was a no-brainer, and it would've been foolish for Durant to do anything but turn pro.
The only sad part?
Durant is so humble and thoughtful he has described his decision as selfish, which couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the 6-foot-9 wing has it backwards because it would've actually been selfish to leave that kind of money on the table, unselfish to take it and use it to change lives, though there's little doubt this decision was announced with conflicted feelings because by all accounts Durant genuinely loved playing college basketball and just being a college student in general.
"I'm leaving my family to go somewhere else," said Durant, who averaged 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds this season while earning National Player of the Year honors from virtually everybody, including CBS SportsLine.com. "It was a very hard decision, but I have to look out for myself."
In other words, sometimes you don't make the decision.
Sometimes the decision is made for you.
That's the real lesson here.
I love my job, love writing about college basketball, love living where I live and have little desire to do anything else. But if GAP called tomorrow and said they'd give me $20 million to run a store in Boston then I'd have to pack my bags, e-mail my bosses, move to Boston and learn to fold sweaters, no questions asked.
