Skal Labissiere is the next top college basketball recruit to consider Europe

Skal Labissiere has been through more in his 18 years than most will experience in a lifetime. Four years ago, he was living in Haiti when an earthquake that killed 300,000 people hit the country. Labissiere’s parents’ house collapsed, and he was trapped underneath, thinking he was going to die. His father would find and rescue him from under the wreckage, and ever since he’s been on path to become a major basketball prospect.

Now 6’10, Labissiere is one of the top talents in high school basketball. He’s ranked No. 11 in the class of 2015 by ESPN, and already has offers from North Carolina, Kentucky and Memphis, among others. The blue-blood programs of college basketball aren’t the only teams that interest Labissiere a year from now, though. He said earlier in the week he’s considering skipping college to play professionally overseas:

“Overseas is an option,” Labissiere told CBSSports.com after another nice performance here at the Las Vegas Classic, one of many NCAA-sanctioned events that bookend the July Evaluation Period. “I don’t know yet for sure. We’ll see. But that is a lot of money.”

Labissiere’s comments come on the heels of Emmanuel Mudiay’s decision to bypass his commitment to SMU to sign a one-year, $1.2 million contract to play professionally in China next season. Mudiay had a market as a likely top five pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, but others like Labissiere might not be so lucky.

As Rob Dauster notes at NBC, there’s no guarantee professional teams in Europe or Asia will be willing to give out million dollar contracts to the top American high school players every year. There are limits in many leagues on the number of American players each team can have. There also isn’t much incentive in it for the teams to help develop a teenager for one year when there’s no promise they’ll still be effective playing against grown men.

Whether Labissiere finds the opportunity he wants overseas remains to be seen, but his openness about skipping college does serve as a checkpoint in what’s sure to be a hot-button issue over the next few years. With the NCAA raising eligibility requirements to qualify academically and NBA commissioner Adam Silver intending to make top college players stay in school at least two years before entering the draft, the ability to play overseas will be an appealing option for many.

The money Mudiay got is going to sound great to most 17-year-olds getting ready for college basketball, but even if opportunities are found overseas, there’s no denying it’s likely to be a difficult process. Brandon Jennings spoke about rarely receiving paychecks on time during his one season in Italy. In places like China, radically different food choices could have negative effects on a player’s body. Never mind the fact that in China, many fans smoke cigarettes in the gym during games.

Labissiere’s guardian, Gerald Hamilton, may be better served steering him close to home at schools like Memphis or Ole Miss, which is reportedly making a late push in the recruitment. It also will be hard to turn down programs as prestigious as Kentucky and North Carolina.

Labissiere is likely better equipped to handle a jump to Europe than most of his peers based solely on his previous life experiences. From an on-court perspective, his thin frame (he’s listed at 210 pounds) means he would be bound to have trouble handling punishment on the inside against players who might be 10 years older. Even at the high school level, Labissiere is a finesse big man — a shot blocker on one end and a jump shooter on the other. How would that skill set translate a year from now in a pro league?

Brandon Jennings didn’t become the trendsetter some expected when he re-routed his way around college to the NBA in 2008. Time will tell if Mudiay’s decision will end up more influential. While the idea of jumping overseas to play professional basketball might sound good to a high schooler in theory, in practice they could be in for a lot more than they bargained for.