The dumbest thing I've ever heard (this week) - The lack of foresight from UK basketball players

Every few days, a headline from the sports world jumps up and catches my attention. Not for a great accomplishment or a rare achievement, but because of the staggering stupidity of those involved in the story.

Since the dawn of social media, these events have been brought to light at a much faster pace, so I feel comfortable announcing that I will now have a weekly post about the dumbest thing I’ve heard all week to go along with whatever else I feel like rambling on about.

For our first installment, I’ve foregone the obligatory categories of athlete stupidity (infidelity, overtly embarrassing greed, strip club related violence, etc.) and instead focus on a few kids who are making an elite-level mistake despite not actually being professional athletes yet.

Earlier this week, five different players from Kentucky’s national championship team announced that they’ll leave college early for the NBA draft. Now, the fact that guys are leaving school before their four years are up is nothing new, but the fact that all of these players – from the same team – all came to the conclusion that they’re NBA-level talent is a mistake that a few of them are likely to regret.

This isn’t so much an indictment on Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. You know, the two guys who were actually talked about before the season started and led the way in every single Kentucky win. The decision of three other underclassmen - Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb - to enter the upcoming draft will likely turn out to be a much worse career path than their two teammates. Davis was a unanimous pick for Player of the Year and a first team All-American. Kidd-Gilchrist was named to the third team of the All-America list. Out of the rest of this new fab five, only Jones and Teague were able to garner as high a standing as second team in a painfully ordinary SEC.

There’s no doubt that Jones, Teague and Lamb are good players. They started all season for a team that lost just twice and rolled through the NCAA tournament with little trouble. But that’s where their problem starts. This isn’t the NCAA basketball of the 70’s, 80s and early 90’s. The original Fab Five at Michigan featured Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard. All of them went on to have a productive NBA career over a decade in length, but the group couldn’t manage a single title while playing on the same college team. Ironically, it’s the trend of college freshman and sophomores leaving early like this Kentucky trio is doing that has watered down college basketball and allowed teams with only one or two real stars to win championships.

Jones, Teague and Lamb should have taken a step back and really looked hard at the facts before announcing their departure. Hell, they don’t even have to look outside of their own program to get an idea of what they’re in for.

In 2010, Kentucky went through a similar run. They were the odds on favorite to win the national championship and, while they fell short, were still believed to have the most talented roster in the country. In fact, there was so much talent on that team that five of them were taken in the first round of the NBA draft that summer.

Just like two years ago, Kentucky had two big stars – John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins – that led the way and three others who were also allowed to run around in the UK uniform. While those three were drafted and made a few million dollars on their first contract, they had better invest it wisely since it looks like they might not get another.

Out of the other three 2010 draftees (Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton), none is averaging more than 7.5 points per game while Orton and Bledsoe average less than 11 minutes of playing time on any given night.

It’s a combination of simple math and history that one talented underclassman after another simply refuses to accept. Professional basketball isn’t like baseball, where a draftee can live (mostly) comfortably for a decade while toiling around the minor leagues. The D-League is little more than a stopgap between the millions of dollars of the NBA and being out of basketball all together and even European leagues – with their rising level of homegrown talent - are becoming less of an option for guys that can’t cut it at basketball’s highest level.

Just look at the numbers. There are 12 spots on each NBA roster, making 360 spots available each season. Every draft sees 60 players get selected. For each draftee to make a roster – much less get to play or have success – there would need to be a 17 percent rollover in the player pool of the entire league. The fact that three players from the same school – none of whom were even the second best player on their team last season – are giving up two or three years of free collegiate education and the chance to become a bigger name is just insane. Do Jones, Teague and Lamb think that they’re actually the better player and will outshine Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist in the NBA? That’s the only good reason I can see for ditching a few more years at one of the best basketball schools in the country for the shaky-at-best prospect of making it in the NBA as a mid to low first round pick.

Perhaps the most telling sign of the stupid choice these three guys just made came at the press conference this week where all five announced their intention to leave school early.

Wearing matching polos instead of their uniforms, the five were dressed the same – just like every game this season. Also similar to every game this season, it was clear that there were two stars and three guys mostly along for the ride.

Terrence Jones, Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb, the three of you aren’t going to have Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist to help you once you’re in a different uniform. In fact, by leaving early despite being the third (or fourth… or fifth) banana in college, there’s a chance you won’t even get to see yourself in that new uniform since you’ll be wasting away in your warm-ups at the end of a bench.

And that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard (this week).