Jabari Parker

[BlueK]

I wish him the best. I hope he recovers well from his injury and can have a great pro career.

And maybe the college experience was never really that important to him. Maybe he always thought it was just a one year step in the road to the NBA. But if it did matter to him, I think it's a little sad how it turned out. I can certainly understand wanting to play at Duke for Coach K. But then he goes there and they lose in the first round of the tournament. And then he's gone, only to see Coach K's very next batch of marquee freshmen win it. His college career will forever just be a small footnote in Duke history that Duke fans are going to try to forget -- other than in the context of how it may have motivated the coaches and players to do better the following year. Okafor and Winslow will forever be remembered fondly by Duke fans. Sure they aren't 4 year guys like Laettner or Grant Hill, but they won a championship following a very disappointing season the previous year. Jabari -- probably not remembered so much.

Bottom line is, I don't think his one year of college at Duke is going to matter at all as far as how basketball and his NBA career goes. It wasn't long enough to matter. But as a BYU fan I have to wonder if he wouldn't have gotten a few additional personal benefits from going there without his NBA career being any less good. He seems like a nice kid though. I wish him the best in basketball and in everything else in his life. Hard to say I wouldn't have been lured by the same things at that age especially if I hadn't grown up as a BYU fan.