Nice move, kid!

I’m talking about Stephon Marbury’s decision to leave school after only one season with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets basketball squad. Marbury followed an increasing trend among collegiate athletes and went chasing the pot at the end of the rainbow.

Well, Marbury received an early treat of professional success two days ago. He was the first pick in the draft.

You may be questioning this bit of information, seeing as the NBA draft is still a few months off. You might wonder how I can go ahead and print something of that magnitude.

Am I psychic? Is it just a daring educated guess? Am I an NBA overlord that controls which team picks which players?

I’d answer all three of those with a simple “no.” I don’t have a psychic hotline, nor would I project Marbury going first in the draft (I’m sticking with my Timberwolves prediction from last week). The overlord thing will happen in due time.

You see, Marbury was the first pick in Wednesday’s USBL (United States Basketball League) draft. Hey, that’s something you can’t put on your resume.

The team wasted their pick on Marbury, as he is a definite NBA-caliber player. What were they thinking?

Well, they might have been thinking that since Marbury is such a young player, he might want to play in the USBL, since he’s losing three preparatory years of college ball.

If he needed more preparation, don’t you think he would have stayed in school?

Which brings me to what I really want to talk about: athletes leaving early. Is this a good thing? Should it be allowed?

I am a supporter of those who leave; those that are fully prepared, anyway. If Stephon Marbury is ready for the NBA (in his mind, that is), then he should go ahead and join the work force. After all, I think it’s reasonable to say he’s in school primarily to showcase his b-ball skills.

His degree isn’t in basketball fundamentals. So why stick around?

I’m not saying abandon the thought of higher learning altogether. After his playing days are over, he can always go back to school. And the next time around, he probably wouldn’t need a scholarship to put him through.

There are those who say that if a player leaves early and gets hurt, what’s he going to do? Okay, let’s think about that…

Let’s say a player doesn’t leave school early and he doesn’t sign that multi-million dollar contract that a highly touted prospect is sure to sign. Let’s say he sustains this “hypothetical” injury while he’s playing without pay in college.

There goes any chance at ever having that contract at all.

But what does a player do after a career-ending injury if he doesn’t have a degree?

If he still needs a steady income, even after earning seven to eight digits a year in the NBA, he can still go back and get that degree. I realize a torn ACL will keep a player off the hardcourt, but it wouldn’t keep them from going to class to get that degree after the NBA stint.

If you’ve grown up dirt-poor and now all of this money is staring at you, what would you do?

If you’ve got the skills to pay the bills, by all means, go for it. But the way things have been in the NBA lately, you better have a pretty good right cross as well.

I’m sorry to beat that dead horse, but the players keep giving me the chance to do so! (Nick Van “Exit”, for example.)

Christopher Clair is a senior in journalism from Waukon, Iowa.