They don't work with you to get better in the NBA. Either you're ready or you're out and you go to the G-League or Europe.
When I got to Central Arkansas, I was a small, slim guy with little chance of playing in the NBA. Then, I went through a two-year growth spurt, and suddenly, I was 6-foot-7.
I look at the N.B.A. as a job, a great job to have, so I think, for me, I would have loved the opportunity to go to the N.B.A. out of high school. If you're not ready, you're not ready. If you are ready, I think you should be able to go.
There's no disrespect in playing in the G League.
I was thinking about the NBA after my fourth year, but I also realized I could get my master's paid for and have another year on the court to raise my draft stock even higher. I felt if I could do those things, I could have my cake and eat it, too.
For a long time, I thought I was going to play basketball. There's not many 6-4 white guys playing the three spot in the NBA, so I realized I probably didn't have much of a future in basketball and that football was probably going to be my best bet.
I've also always known that I wouldn't be playing for the N.B.A.
Any chance a rookie gets to go play in the playoffs, that should be a boost going into summer league. That should be a boost for the rest of your career. That's something that a lot of rookies can't say they did.
I kind of knew. I said, 'Yeah, I'm not going to be able to play in the NBA. That's just not going to happen. Let that dream go.'
I really hope that a lot of Georgian players will get recognition, and I can help them get out, play in the European leagues and the NBA. Basketball is in our blood.
Getting a star player in the NBA is not impossibly hard, but close. It requires either an incredible amount of luck, or an amazing amount of time, or some other way to try and get at it.
Major League Baseball has the best idea of all. Three years before they'll take a kid out of college, then they have a minor league system that they put the kids in. I'm sure that if the NBA followed the same thing, there would be a lot of kids in a minor league system that still were not good enough to play in the major NBA.
There's a lot of guys who are drafted and end up not playing in the NBA. They get their money for their first whatever years and end up going overseas or something like that.
I actually think if you have a strong junior class, that's the best possible scenario. In their senior year, guys who are on the threshold of making it to the NBA start getting preoccupied in their thoughts elsewhere more than concerning themselves with the present. The junior class is the perfect age.
What's being considered now is solidifying my place in the NBA. Keep focusing on the grass roots, because I want the next guys to be good. Right now, all I'm doing for camps and academies and stuff, I'm just finding the next NBA player.
I would hope the NBA Players Association would say that people like LeBron could come out early because he's so gifted, but if you stay, you stay three years. Your skill level will be greater, and the chances of you going to the NBA are much greater.
