That number does not include the 17 international players who were on the official list released Friday. NBA commissioner David Stern has had a hard time accepting that 58 underclassmen and high school players are trying to make the jump. Making little headway in negotiations with the players association on establishing an age requirement for entering the league, Stern vented last week. If you've got somebody, you want them to move to the place where the money will be earned in the short run and not wait a year, because somebody else may have their hooks into them by then. And given the policing mechanism, or not, of the NCAA or the various states or whatever, it's a big mess.
School is an irrelevancy.
Stern said he does not blame his coaches or general managers for taking high school players, but he pointed to the union for not taking a stand. And he blamed the NCAA for moving slowly on its stipend proposal. School is an irrelevancy. Perhaps he should be the one. After the Sacramento Kings' quick exit from the playoffs, Chris Webber headed out of town to clear his mind, retreating to New York to hang out with Knicks star Latrell Sprewell.