Tyler Being Exploited on His Way to Israel

Sonny Vaccaro and B.J. Armstrong aren't advising Jeremy Tyler. They are exploiting him for their own gain.

Tyler is the 18-year-old San Diego youngster who is trying to become the first American-born student to leave high school early to play professional basketball overseas. He signed a one-year contract worth $140,000 Wednesday to play with Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Premier League.

While everyone else in his class is getting ready to start his senior year of high school, Tyler is being led down a path to a nightmare.

For all the talk that colleges take advantage of these soon-to-be-pro athletes, this exercise of sending him to a foreign land without the necessary maturity level to handle it is considerably worse.

The whole affair sounds – and is – dirty, although Vaccaro and Armstrong are trying to justify encouraging him to become a high school dropout. Boy, that sounds like really good advice there.

How about telling him to go to summer school so he can actually graduate and live a normal life when his basketball playing days are over?

"I don't care how big and strong he is, this doesn't make sense for the kid,'' said one former NBA head coach on Thursday. "Even mature players go to Europe and 10 days later, they want to come home.''

Tyler, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound man-child won't be eligible for the NBA Draft until 2011. He told the Associated Press that high school basketball was boring, and that he needed another challenge.

How about studying for the SAT?

Although the Israeli Premier League is not on the level of the best basketball in Spain, Italy or Greece, it's still better than what he would find in the NCAA, which means he'll be overwhelmed at first.

There is no reason for Maccabi Haifa to try and develop him, knowing that if he is as good as he thinks, he won't be there for more than two years. It's sink or swim from the start. And it's more likely, he'll sink, not so much from his play on the court, but from what he finds when the games and the practices end.

It's tough enough for immature kids to remain level-headed on a college campus. What's it going to be like thousands of miles away from home, where the culture gap between San Diego and Israel is considerable.

The ultra-talented kids now like Dwight Howard and LeBron James who go directly from high school to the NBA are carefully advised and groomed and protected by their teams because so much money is invested in the players. He won't get that with Maccabi Haifa because they have very little invested and already have reaped a ton of publicity from the signing. How long do you think Armstrong and Vaccaro will be in Israel with Tyler? Not very long.

We tell kids all the time to slow down, quit rushing to grow up, but with talented young athletes and the potential of really big money involved, they get the opposite advice from people who stand to gain from the process.

"If it was my kid, I certainly wouldn't let him go play there,'' said the former NBA coach. "This is not a good thing for anyone.''

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-13-2009 @ 7:00PM

henryclemente said...

Full of flawed logic.

Kid attends senior year and studies for SAT and he's on his way to a normal life? Otherwise, his life will be a nightmare? Hahaha, save it for an after-school special

Oh the wonderful NBA carefully advises and grooms and protects their young players. And they all turn out great upstanding young men. Right?

Evil agents, on the other hand, are out to swindle the poor kid and are are going to dump him at the airport curbside.

Get a grip on yourself, man. If the kid is meant for success, and has the proper work ethic, he will succeed. No matter if it's college, NBA, or Europe. If he's a bad apple, he's destined for failure no matter how many years of school he goes to.

8-13-2009 @ 7:40PM

Giles said...

Easy to not care when it isn`t your own earring wearing arse headed literally into a war zone. Or doesn`t anyone remember 9/11? The guys who did that are gone, but there are plenty more just like them. And they are the democratic majority in Israel and its occupied territories. But they aren`t allowed to run their own country. Foreigners, the British/US, decided to let other foreigners, Jews, into their country to run their lives. You think they are just going to lay back, say, "oo, I bet he`s big, Welcome here, big boy!", and just let him and the Zionists do whatever they want in the unofficial nation of Ishmael? That kid isn`t just passing up the slogan To get a good job, get a good education. He`s just volunteer for the front lines of a war zone. And he won`t even get a flag over his coffin. Sink or swim in the Nbdl and/or Nba, maybe, but Philestinia? Make a good inscription for his tombstone won`t it. Bored with high school. Yeah, sure, odds are he`ll survive. Rony Seikally met a terrorist who realized he was big, but just a scared kid, and let him go. Maybe Tyler will get away with playing Russian Roulette, too. Think that`ll do his momma any good if Armstrong has to tell her the boy wasn`t a hero, but won`t be anything anymore?

8-13-2009 @ 8:10PM

mantaent said...

He will make 3 times what a teacher makes.

I guess it is better to get exploited the normal way, by the NCAA for free. lol

8-13-2009 @ 8:13PM

Jason said...

Tim, you are clueless. This kid will learn wore about life and basketball abroad than by one extra year in high school- he can always go back and finish his course work. The level of basketball competition he faces is week and I cant blame him if all his game winds up is having to pass after being hacked and triple teamed every game. I think travel abroad- and he is going to have people with him to protect him, is good for the young man.

8-13-2009 @ 8:15PM

awful typos by me - so here are the corrections - (more) instead of wore (line 1)and should be weak (not week- in line 4) LOL

8-14-2009 @ 10:26PM

burt said...

let's see:
he is 18, an adult?
he could join the army, go to iraq and kill or be killed;
or, go to israel and make a good amount of money doing what he does best.
which one is exploitational?

8-15-2009 @ 3:49AM

Of course, if the nba would stop crying crocodile tears about the poor exploited young man, and start obeying the law for a change, the kid wouldn`t have to take his earring overseas. The Spencer Haywood case decided an association like the nba could not deny an adult like Tyler his right to work by prior restraint of trade. But Gov Palin didn`t have to obey the law, if it is the same in Alaska as elsewhere, banning minors like her daughter from sex, and therefore pregancy, the Bushes didn`t have to obey US law banning the toppling of UN member governments like those in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Iraq, by the US treaty of membership in the UN, and the nba doesn`t have to obey the law. Who does? Tyler maybe?