Pete Thamel of the New York Times, who happens to be an outstanding writer has a piece in Sunday’s paper on Jeremy Tyler, a high school basketball player who skipped his senior season in high school to play ball over in Israel. Things don’t seem to be going as planned.  This is a great read-some interesting tidbits coming from both sides.  Kids get homesick when they go away to college here in the States; I couldn’t imagine going across the world at such a young age.

His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team. In extensive interviews with Tyler, his teammates, coaches, his father and advisers, the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is. So enamored with his vast potential, Tyler has not developed the work ethic necessary to tap it.

“The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career,” Haifa Coach Avi Ashkenazi said. “If he thinks he’s going to be in the N.B.A. because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be.”

-Coach Finamore

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