Michael Beasley has a lot of advice for the likes of Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle and any other collegiate player looking to follow in his footsteps of playing just one-year of college ball before bolting for the NBA.
"If I could tell them one thing, it would be, 'It's your life, it's what you make it,'" Beasley, drafted No. 2 overall out of Kansas State behind Derrick Rose in 2008, told USA TODAY Sports. "I think my only regret, and not just with college, is trying to make other people happy all of the time. If I could do everything over, I'd do it for me."
Still just 25, the Miami Heat reserve's early-career has been riddled with major disappointment. Already, he's been cut once, traded twice and played for three different teams. This is his second stint with the world champion Heat, who took him back despite his having been arrested on marijuana-related charges shortly before the franchise moved to do so.
"I can't say I would have stayed another year," Beasley told the newspaper when asked if he could do it all over again if he would do things the same way. "I grew up poor, dirt poor ... Everybody is different.
Nowadays, players are not allowed to enter the NBA draft until one year after their high school class graduates. And with examples such as Beasley's saga new Commissioner Adam Silver is now pushing to extend the age limit even further.
The NBA's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) runs through the 2021 draft, but there is an opt-out clause in 2017 and Silver is already laying the groundwork for a change to the so-called one-and-done rule. Silver is on record in asserting he wants the new age limit for players to be 20.
According to USA Today, since the rule went into effect in 2006, 57 players have declared for the draft under its parameters and things for most of them haven't nearly turned out the same way for such stars as Rose, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, all of whom were also one-and-done stars.
"It's one of those issues where it needs to be collectively bargained, and for good reason," Silver told USA Today. "I'm trying to look at it not just from the perspective of the NBA because I believe strong college basketball is also beneficial to the NBA and to the game generally."
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