hypothetical question.. kwame brown related.

[Andrew]

Mind you, it's kind of like players who came out of high school; for every success story, there's a player who couldn't cut it in the league. Likewise, for every Kwame Brown miracle deal there's a bloated contract that continues to weigh a team down until it finally comes off the books and he's wished luck in his future endeavours with a relieved "good riddance" being heavily implied.

[benji]

Mind you, it's kind of like players who came out of high school; for every success story, there's a player who couldn't cut it in the league.

More like players (and everything in life?) in general...I don't see why high schoolers are always singled out like that.

[Andrew]

Well, yes, in all fairness you could say that about a lot of players and life in general. I guess high schoolers are a popular example because of the contrast between the success of Kevin Garnett or Kobe Bryant compared to Kwame Brown or in particular, Leon Smith. Maybe the example is overused and high schoolers somewhat maligned by it but it remains a widely relatable example of a risky decision or a situation where the potential reward seems to overshadow the risk.

Perhaps the example was superfluous to what I was trying to say.

[benji]

I think it remains a stupid example. High schoolers are no different than the rest of the NBA players. For every Michael Jordan, there's Trajan Langdon and Joe Forte.

There's just fewer of them, so everyone remembers Korelone Young and Leon Smith. Nobody remembers the thousands of college failures.

[Andrew]

I guess that's what makes it a popular example, fair or not. There's fewer of them, so their stories (good or bad) stand out more than the thousands of players that came out of college.