While the NBA early entry deadline to remain in the 2010 NBA Draft came and went on May 8th, we all have been speculating on who would benefit from another year in school or who made the right decision to go pro. While it was a unanimous decision for players like Georgetown’s Greg Monroe to remain in the draft, a few like Duke’s Kyle Singler surprised everyone by returning to school to earn a degree and have a chance at winning another NCAA Championship.
Then there are those way out there, ill advised choices to enter the draft like the case of John Sloan of Huntingdon College, which is a tiny Division III school in Montgomery, Alabama. The kicker of the story is that the junior forward decided to forego his senior season even though he was hardly even the best player on his own team since he averaged a miniscule 2 ppg in barely over 10 minutes per game.
After the Huntingdon athletic department and Sloan’s cell phone continually rang over the national buzz surrounding a player entering the draft from such a small school, Sloan agreed to do an interview with a local Alabama newspaper. In the interview he revealed that the whole incident was essentially a joke. While he knew had had absolutely no chance of making it on an NBA roster, he took advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to make some national headlines and to one day tell his grandchildren about once being on the same list as John Wall and Evan Turner. One of his friends even set up a new Facebook page titled Draft Sloan! which has a growing list of friend requests that already has reached upwards of 1000 people in only one week’s time.
Sloan declared in essence, because he no longer intends to play basketball next season. He plans on getting a job to save money and will concentrate on his grades in an attempt to get into pharmacy school. What a noble concept of going to school to get an education.
Then again, don’t rule out the NY Knicks in Sloan’s future plans since if they stick to their blueprint for signing Lebron as well as another high priced free agent this Summer, they will have little money to fill out the rest of their roster. Don’t give up hoops just yet Mr Sloan.
Via – The Sporting Blog
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.
