With UCLA again one of the top basketball programs in the
nation, fans will have to get used to things that Westwood
hasn’t seen in a while. There are the good things: 30-win
seasons, championship banners and All-Americans crying at the feet
of a tenacious Bruin defense.
But then there are the downsides to being an elite program,
which aren’t limited to heartbreaking championship-game
losses. Only the best and most efficient of programs can overcome
one of the biggest issues facing college basketball: players
leaving school early to enter the NBA Draft.
When I first watched UCLA’s freshmen last year, I was both
elated and frightened. What would happen if this supremely talented
group of players put together a great season? How soon would they
scratch the itch and enter the draft?
Two seasons later, Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo have declared
for the draft, but neither has hired an agent ““ leaving open
the possibility of a return to school.
Both players have said they will pull out of the draft if they
are not projected to go in the first round (where contracts are
guaranteed). It’s rumored that Afflalo will be a second-round
pick at best. Barring an astonishing workout for NBA scouts,
Afflalo will likely be suiting up at Pauley Pavilion for at least
another year.
Farmar’s situation is far more complicated. Some have
called him the best Pac-10 point guard prospect since Mike Bibby,
but also note that he ““ like Afflalo ““ could use
another year in school.
Normally, a raw player like Farmar would not be drafted in the
first round. But the crop of point guards is much weaker this year
than in previous drafts. The importance of having a true point
guard has also driven Farmar’s stock up the draft boards.
Recently, we have seen clear examples of point guards turning
NBA teams around, such as Jason Kidd, Steve Nash and Chris Paul
““ all of whom took unheralded teams deep into the playoffs
the year they arrived (or, in Paul’s case, almost made the
playoffs with a putrid team in his rookie season).
ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons believes that rule changes, with
officials cracking down on excessive contact as well as quietly
allowing moving screens, have allowed penetrating guards to be as
valuable to teams as strong big men (watch Boris Diaw of the Suns,
Simmons says, and you’ll see why Steve Nash has become a
two-time MVP).
This is the time for a player like Farmar to thrive. He is
projected to go in the late first round of the draft. Normally,
this would break my heart. But the madness has only just begun.
That’s because Farmar stands a good chance of being
drafted by my favorite team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the eleven years that I have followed the Lakers, the team
has lacked two things: a great power forward and a pure point
guard.
Farmar could fall into their laps.
Imagine him running an offense, setting up Kobe Bryant
alley-oops, hitting Lamar Odom with a bounce pass on a cut to the
basket, or draining an open jumper off a pick-and-roll.
While fascinating to contemplate, I’m not sure this is
best. Sure, Farmar could one day play a key role in returning the
Lakers to the NBA elite, but I would prefer him to stay in school
another year and potentially lead UCLA to a title.
Perhaps I’m selfish, but I would love to close out my
college career at UCLA seeing our team do something few students
get to witness. Consider this: of hundreds of Division I schools,
only UCLA and Florida remained in the field at the end of the NCAA
Tournament ““ roughly 80,000 students out of millions across
the country had the chance to personally experience their school
playing on one of the biggest stages in sports.
I was at the Lakers-Kings playoff game in which Robert Horry hit
the game-winning shot, Game Six of the 2002 World Series in which
the Angels stunned the Giants, and even Super Bowl XXXII, yet
sitting in Pauley Pavilion and watching the championship game was
like nothing I have ever experienced. Yes, watching a game in which
my team was annihilated completely outclassed these sporting
events. Why?
Because I was a part of this one. I wasn’t a Lakers fan or
an Angels fan or someone who wanted to see John Elway win a
Super-Bowl ring. I was a Bruin. I was UCLA. Farmar, Afflalo and the
rest of the team were representing me and my school. It’s a
special connection that is difficult to top; I may love the Lakers,
I may cherish my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, and I might cheer
every year for Biggio and Bagwell to lead the Houston Astros to
glory, but this is different.
Should Farmar end up playing for the Lakers? I’d cheer for
him to get off of Phil Jackson’s bench, to which rookies
stick like flypaper. But I’ll never forget what his exploits
meant to me and all of Westwood. Even if he leads the Lakers to
scores of titles, those banners will not be nearly as sweet as
being able to tell my kids I attended UCLA when the Bruins took
home a trophy.
E-mail Humphrey at
mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.