Back in April, we
reported that San Diego high school junior Jeremy Tyler would skip his senior year to play professional basketball abroad. This was the first time that a high
schooler made the jump to pro ball prior to graduating. He had already given a verbal to Rick Pitino and Louisville, but changed his mind and headed abroad for his senior season.
Tyler ultimately signed with
Maccabi Haifa for $140,000, however Pete
Thamel of
New York Times reports that the move hasn't been worth it thus far and "after nearly three months of professional basketball in Israel’s top division, Tyler is at a crossroads."
His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team. In extensive interviews with Tyler, his teammates, coaches, his father and advisers, the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is. So enamored with his vast potential, Tyler has not developed the work ethic necessary to tap it.“The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career,” Haifa Coach
Avi Ashkenazi said.
“If he thinks he’s going to be in the N.B.A. because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be.”Not only does Tyler seem to have issues with putting the ball in the basket (he scored 1 point in his first two games), but his emotions are all over the spectrum. He
cried when leaving the US, missed his first flight because he did not know he needed his passport and left the locker room in tears after playing only 10 minutes in his first game.
However according to
Thamel, Tyler still talks openly about retiring with $200 million in the bank after a 15-year N.B.A. career. He also talks about modeling,
the documentary being made about him, and how he and his girlfriend, Erin Wright, the daughter of the rapper
Eazy-E, will grow up to be an American power couple. This guy really needs to get his head on straight before he can be a serviceable player in Israel and have any shot at making the leap to the NBA.
Only time will tell if the foreign pro ball experience will benefit Tyler on and off the court however he is not off to a good start. He doesn't seem like the ideal player or personality to test out the waters abroad and become a poster child for the move. It is going to be a very long two years over there before he can enter the NBA draft and begin his "15-year career."
The early NBA success of Bucks PG Brandon Jennings might inspire more U.S. youngsters to travel abroad for a season or two rather then going to college. However, while abroad Jennings did strongly
advised players to head to college rather than tough it out in Europe.
“All he had to do was go and do what Brandon did, shut up and go learn,” said Sonny Vaccaro, an adviser to Tyler and Jennings. “He obviously isn’t doing that. He thinks that he’s Kevin Garnett.”
Tyler's career is still extremely early and much like Jennings, a rough abroad experience might create a hands-on learning experience that will benefit him down the road. If Jennings didn't struggle so much last year in Europe, would he have the same impact on the Bucks?
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