http://www.nykfanpage.com/editorials/viewarticle.php?articleid=180

“You certainly have talent. Presence. And a multiple of other basketball skills, but do you have any...um...”


Kwame Brown is one of the poster children of the P-word.
(snapping fingers)

“What’s the word I’m looking for...?”

“You know the word. Ummm...”

“It begins with a P. It’s right on the tip of my tongue. Do you have any umm...”

“Potential?”

“Yeah that’s it! Do you have any potential?”

Potential

The dreaded P-word. The key word. The buzz word. In the NBA, it can be the difference between one dollar and a million dollars. Personally, I’ve never liked the word. In fact, I’ve now began to hate the word. The word itself should be abolished from the vocabulary of every National Basketball Association-affiliated person who uses it, or stands to use it.

Potential is never guaranteed, so why does it seem to be the prime de facto when it comes to drafting players into the NBA?

In the real world, no one looks for it when buying a car or house. I’ve never purchased a pair of gym shoes based on potential. Imagine if I dated females based on it. I’d probably be put under the jail. You see, the P-word goes hand-in-hand with youth and inexperience, so why exactly does everyone seem to get ahead of themselves when speaking the word? Wouldn’t it make perfect sense to wait until that potential is realized before we give so much power to such a useless word?

Think about it for a second...

He’s raw with loads of potential. His game suffers, but he has great potential. Once you remove the “potential” aspect, you began to see a clearer picture. He’s raw. His game suffers.

If you draft a player based on his potential, then you are giving the impression that eventually his potential will be fulfilled. The time between having potential and potential being realized can seem like a lifetime. That’s even if it is realized at all.

In certain cases, everything does happen as planned. The player with great potential gets drafted and goes on to become the superstar you envisioned him to be when drafted.

See Kevin Garnett. Kobe Bryant. Tracy McGrady.

But how many Garnetts, Bryants, and McGradys are there in the NBA? Last time I checked, there was only one of each. The moral of the story is that everyone who is so-called “loaded with potential” won’t become the next NBA superstar. It can’t and shouldn’t be considered normal. So how is it that is has?

You watch a young basketball player and mentally take notes of his game. You end your thought process with the conclusion that you believe this player shows great promise. The player is young and inexperienced, but the early signs of greatness are there. There is every indication that this player can one day become a great basketball player. He has potential. The sky is the limit. Imagine what level his game can prosper into with age and experience. Sign on the dotted line.

But doesn’t it take a certain commitment on behalf of the franchise as well as the player? A commitment that lies well beyond simply drafting the player. Commitment is a word that should legally follow every player that has been branded with the P-word. NBA Commissioner David Stern should make it mandatory.

It seems everyone has potential on draft night, but more times than not, we can easily look back on past drafts and see the names of players with potential who missed the boat. Shouldn’t there be a certain criteria established when determining exactly who really does have potential?

How many times is the word spoken during the NBA draft?

“He has tremendous potential.”

“He has a ton of potential.”

A ton?

Do you ever get the feeling when you hear so-called draft experts using the P-word that they are attempting to pull the wool over your eyes? And they know that you know they are. I mean, let’s be honest—everyone can’t possibly have potential. The so-called experts will even try to fool you by using another word—upside. Grrrr.

You ever noticed how college seniors are never labeled with the word? Why not? Shouldn’t they also be able to improve their games as well? Nowadays, a 22 year old proven college player doesn’t stand a chance against an unproven superstar 18 year old high school player on Draft Night. Why not? It’s because of the P-word. A word that has held the NBA hostage since 1995 when Garnett was selected with the fifth overall pick.

Prediction

A certain liability exist in having to sit around and wait for a prediction to be fulfilled. There is always the possibility that you can lose with the first overall pick in the draft.

See Kwame Brown.

Now ask yourself how is it possible that a team can completely lose with the first pick? Surely there are plenty of players who will have great NBA careers. You have the opportunity to be the first at reaching your hand into the cookie jar. How could you not get a cookie?

The P-word...

Because of this word, GMs begin to play mind games with themselves. They gamble. When you gamble, there’s always the possibility that you will lose.

No one wants to be the one to miss out on the next big thing. Just as much as they do want to be the one to pick the next big thing. GMs will desperately throw their hooks out and in search of the big catch. The atmosphere is optimistic once you get that bite. But once you reel in your catch, and it yields very little, you appear to be very foolish.

See Jerry Krause.

He traded Elton Brand for the rights to high schooler Tyson Chandler, a player whose career may never be as productive as the career of the player for which he was traded. Blame it on the P-word.

It would seem that GMs would take a more logical “What can you do for me now?” approach instead of the now all-too-common “What can you do for me in the future?” approach that appears to be the going rate.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that players who are labeled with the P-word never come to fulfill it because there are those who do. I’m simply stating the fact that it is not the “norm” that it’s being made out to be.

Possibility

The P-word is being thrown around entirely too much. It’s being given way too much power. GMs and scouts love the word. They worship it. Fans alike. The NBA Draft has become all about it. It’s almost as if the young talented players of today don’t have to prove anything until after they are drafted.

Think about that for a second...

Because of one word, players enter into the NBA not having proven anything. That’s deep.

And at that very moment, the entire weight of a sometimes sinking ship is placed firmly upon the shoulders of a teenager.

Mindboggling, to say the least.

The P-word is dangerous for both the players being drafted and the teams investing in them. Players are being touted as having this impending talent that is expected to one day bloom, and the athlete is to become this superstar player. But most young players never come to reach their predicted potential and simply fade away. You know, there’s always a slight possibility that Robert Swift just may become Robert Swift.

Product

At the end of the day, the NBA is a business. Money is still the driving factor of the league. With players entering the league with less and less skills and more and more potential, the quality of the NBA’s product suffers. Apparantly, Commissioner David Stern recognized this and has set out to improve upon the level of play by implementing an age limit.

The line of thinking here is concluding that the NBA, or the world’s biggest basketball stage is no longer the place to learn fundamental basketball skills. An immature high school player with raw talent being penciled in as the number one pick in the NBA Draft was once a foregone conclusion. But that no longer appears to be the case either. An occasional glimpse of basketball brilliance left GMs foaming at the mouth. The sky was the limit. Meaning anything can happen. When a struggling NBA franchise uses its precious ping pong ball on a unproven player, and that player falls face first then at some point the league itself has to serve notice to the franchise. A franchise that isn’t even worth putting on television and watching for free.

Drafting these talented but raw high school phenoms with lottery picks suddenly became the norm. It seemed destined that an outstanding 17 year old basketball player would hear his name being called by David Stern on Draft Night. But sitting around waiting for these players to develop into whatever it is the player develops into has seemingly hurt the overall quality of play in the NBA. If the NBA really wants to solve the problem, the owners should simply stop wasting precious draft picks on potential.

It’s already hard enough for a proven college player to step in and make a living for himself in the NBA, so you can imagine how difficult it can be for a player straight out of high school to do the same—a player who has been given almost everything without really proving anything.

Call it the “Young Franchise Player” concept. All eyes on him.

Surely, that concept comes installed with an inflated ego. But once drafted, the clock starts ticking, and a time limit enters into the picture on when that player will become the superstar it was projected he would eventually become once drafted. Whose fault is it when a player doesn’t realize his predicted potential? Exactly who suffers? Pressure can burst pipes. It can also let the air out an hot balloon.

And the inflated ego of the young franchise player will take devastating blow after devastating blow once that player becomes labeled as a bust. He can never live down the unfulfilled expectations. Never. Yup, all eyes are now truly on him. The sky was the limit. Meaning anything under the sun can happen and anything under the sun didhappen. His confidence is all but destroyed now. The feeling of being labeled as a bust can be similar to the feeling of having a million dollars one day and having one dollar the next day. We as fans will sit back and wonder how in the world was Johnathan Bender drafted ahead of Shawn Marion, Ron Artest, Richard Hamilton and Andrei Kirilenko? How is it possible that DeSagana Diop was taken before Richard Jefferson, Zach Randolph, Tony Parker, and Gilbert Arenas?

Say it with me. The..P..Word.

For every high school player loaded with potential, I imagine there is a proven college player that turns out to be a bum. And for every proven college player that goes on to have a solid NBA career there is a high school player loaded with potential whose NBA career is non-existent. Different faces, different cases. But whatever the case may be, just don’t say the P-word.

Please.