You might remember Jeremy Tyler, the first high schooler in the history of the sport to skip his senior year of high school to play as a pro overseas. This decision, it is now safe to say, has backfired.
Jeremy Tyler’s European Experiment Going Horribly Wrong
↵The New York Times’s Pete Thamel documents Tyler’s first 100 days as a pro in Israel, and the results are not kind: Tyler seems like an immature boor surrounded by distractions and ego-inflating hangers-on; Tyler’s Israeli coach, used to coaching young men after their mandatory three years of Israeli army service, has no idea how to reach him; and Tyler’s teammates don’t believe he is serious about his commitment to his team. (After one veteran teammate scores on Tyler in a drill, the teammate tells Thamel “if I let someone score that easy, I would stab myself.” Israelis are so laid back!)
↵Taken alone, it’s an indictment of Tyler’s individual decision. Taken as a larger measure of high school players’ overseas options, it’s an indictment of the idea in general. Some 18-year-olds could make the Europe thing work; it appears Jeremy Tyler is not one of them.
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