Oy Vey, the Irony: Jeremy Tyler Quit School to Hoop with People of the Book

Jeremy Tyler quit high school to play pro hoops in Israel. That is just awesome. What will be next? I suppose a parent will eventually attempt to cryogenically freeze their teen with the plan to thaw them out in a year when their draft prospects seem to be the best. It is hilariously beyond the pale how out of whack people’s priorities are. Why don’t we just go all out and set up some Chinese-style sports academies and train our gifted athletes from the embryonic phase? It would save them from ever having to seek any kind of traditional education, and Glenn Beck would love it. He could do little video shorts of ballers dunking with Stalin’s face super-imposed over their heads.

I can understand wanting to duck out on the sham of helping the NCAA turn a profit for a year before entering the draft. But who would want to miss their senior year of high school? Could his grades have been so bad he would not have been able to play this year? That seems practically impossible. If you just show up to class in high school more often than not, you should be able to pull off a nice series of the “C’s” and “D’s” one needs to stay on the court.

Naturally, the 6’11 18 year-old is struggling with living in a new country, playing against grown men and not being the big man on campus. Tyler was apparently surprised he was not handed the keys to the kingdom as soon as he showed up to play for Maccabi Haifa. He is only playing a few minutes a game, and is not that impressive thus far. But riding the bench in the Holy Land has to be better than frantically copying a friend’s geometry homework in the hallway before the bell rings to start class.

“It’s tough going to practice every day, twice a day, working as hard as you can, and once the game comes, you get no love,” he said.

He is thousands of miles away from everything he knows and loves. He is not getting in the game. He will not be getting laid at prom. Is that worth it for $140,000? (Answer: Eh, probably. We’re in a recession, you know?) But will his struggles in Israel hurt or help his NBA status?

People seem to think the jury is still out. Aran Smith, president of NBAdraft.net had this to say:

“This will be a real test for him,” Smith said in an email. “Will he ‘soldier up’ and rise to the challenge? Or will he run and hide and look for a way out.”

Tyler is projected as a possible lottery pick next year, and Brandon Jennings fast start with the Bucks is only helping his case. Next year he will be a millionaire. But he will still be a high school drop out.

President Obama, it’s time to consider a “Sports Czar.” Preferably one that wears a big furry hat and screams about how he was sodomized by a pack of wolves in Siberia during his special forces training every time one of his six year olds complains that he should at least let them stop running during the REM period of sleep.

Can America stamp out education in the name of sports? Yes, we can!

Jeremy Tyler’s high school highlight reel:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaJcyVNju4k

Not sports related, but I just want this in writing since the subject of Glenn Beck came up: I predict Beck, or a similar nut, will openly question whether or not Fort Hood shooter and army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan used his influence over soldiers to plant “Manchurian Candidate” style, deep-cover unconscious terrorists in the armed forces. What is today? Wednesday? Give him till Friday.

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Photo by the Jewish Agency for Israel

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