Just about every kid bouncing a basketball somewhere on this globe dreams of playing in the NBA. It's an empty dream for most. For the ones fortunate enough to play for a college powerhouse, their odds are better than most. Except if you play for Duke.
Certainly much has been made about Duke's legacy in college basketball, Coach K's milestones in wins and their Final Four heritage. That's all great news for Duke fans. But those kids dreaming out on the court, dribbling that ball, envisioning a bright future aren't dreaming of winning college basketball games. They're dreaming of the NBA. To those dreamers, I suggest going somewhere other than Duke.
Rather than listen to my own spite, I'll allow some basic facts to speak for themselves.
It's true, Duke wins a lot of basketball games, they win championships and Coach K has earned a great deal of esteem as a result. That's fantastic if your goals are only as far as college.
But look at the NBA and players who played for Coach K. Consider the following list of Duke greats, keeping in mind some of these players are top players in ACC history, if not national history: Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, JJ Reddick, Trajan Langdon, Danny Ferry, Shane Battier, Seth Curry, Mike Dunleavy, DeMarcus Nelson and Kyle Singler. Who could argue that these aren't some of the all-time greatest in Duke history? They all had long, successful careers under Coach K at Duke. But what happened after that? That greatness faded into a collective of mediocrity. That list of 10 Duke greats combined to average 62 points in the NBA...and that's with rounding up.
Oh, but there have been successful Duke players in the NBA. True. Compare that first list with this one: Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand, Luol Deng and Kyrie Irving. Those four have averaged 69 points in the NBA. What could be the difference? One difference is the people on the second list stayed at Duke for two years or fewer. The first list is made up of players who very often stayed three or more.
Draw what conclusions you might from that. But how about this list: Bill Cartwright, Bill Walton, Jason Kidd, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Trevor Ariza and Kawhi Leonard. All of those were the Player of the Year in California. So was Duke star DeMarcus Nelson. While the rest of the list is made up of NBA draftees who all went on to, at the very least, solid NBA careers, DeMarcus Nelson wasn't drafted. He didn't average a whole point in his short NBA career. He's also the only California POY to attend Duke going back for decades.
It's possible these things are coincidental, but it that's a pretty big pile of coincidences.
But don't let that diminish from Coach K. He's really great at getting kids to play Duke basketball, to win games for Duke and hang banners at Duke. And if that's your dream, to help Coach K win games for Duke, to help him add to his wins tally, to be appreciated by the people at Cameron for a few years, then go ahead and go to Duke. If your dream involves the NBA, you might want to think about going somewhere else. Examine the facts on your own and make up your mind. But doesn't it make you wonder why Coach K never took any of that NBA money? Because he loves Duke too much? Wouldn't you? Unless you were one of those guys on that first list, who helped Duke realize their dreams only to end up, at best, as a NBA journeymen.
It seems clear that the shorter you stay at Duke, the better your chances are to be a star in the NBA. Would you rather be Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner or Jabari Parker and Kyrie Irving? Ask yourself what the difference is. If you don't stay at Duke very long, you're much more successful. So just think of how successful you'd be if you never went. Jason Kidd and Paul Pierce didn't. DeMarcus Nelson did. What do you suppose the difference was?
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