OSU basketball: Returning to college is best for Le’Bryan Nash
The first time that I saw Le’Bryan Nash play in person, I had one overwhelming thought.
Don’t turn pro yet, kid.
There is no doubt that the Oklahoma State freshman possesses some special talents on the basketball court. He glides around the floor. He looks so effortless.
Then again, those things are part of the reason that I hoped he would stay at least another year. Nash is a physical specimen, but he doesn’t dominate games. He doesn’t take it to defenders enough. He doesn’t impose his will regularly. He doesn’t get to the basket, or at least get himself better shots, often enough.
And if you can’t do those things to dominate a college game, how in the world are you going to hang in the NBA?
So, I heaved a big sigh of relief Monday when our man John Helsley reported that Nash is likely to return to the Cowboys next season.
“I can tell you this,” Nash told Helsley, “it’s 70 percent I’m coming back. I can tell you that. I feel I’m not having a big (enough) year to go to the NBA. I really feel like I could come back and really make an impact.
“I’m just going by this season right now. I just keep playing right now. I’m not really looking at the NBA.”
Right on.
Every year, we see underclassmen declare themselves eligible for the NBA Draft when they really aren’t ready. I’m not one of those people who says every player should stay in college all four years. There are always guys who are ready. Kevin Durant. Derrick Rose. Blake Griffin. The list goes on and on.
But for every success, there are two or three failures.
And for a player like Nash, the pressure to leave has to be significant. This was a guy who was tabbed a for-sure one-and-done player coming out of high school. Everyone expected him to spend just one season in college. Everyone said he would be on his way to the NBA after this year.
No doubt Nash has heard all of those projections. He knows that people expected him to have this great freshman year at OSU and to leave Stillwater for Sacramento or Phoenix or some other NBA hamlet.
But the truth is, he’s not ready to make the jump, and the fact that Nash recognizes that is no small thing. He could’ve just stuck to the one-and-done script, declared himself eligible for the draft and been gone. To see that he’s not having a great year takes maturity. To change a course that so many have laid out for him takes courage.
Now, Nash didn’t say that he was a hundred percent sure he would return to OSU. He said he was 70 percent sure. That still leaves the door open to him leaving.
Here’s hoping that he shuts that door completely.
The NBA needs to wait.
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