Really applaud Adam Silver and the NBA for recognizing Isaiah Austin.
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
- Start date
Austin has been quite the odd story.
Just a lanky guy that was close to the top of his class and he has had 2 good seasons, by college basketball standards, but hardly impressive. He does nothing very well. But then he comes out of college even though he wasn't projected high. It really seemed, at the time, that he could have stayed and improved for at least another year.
And then mid-year its revealed he was missing an eye! Shortly after a bunch of NBA scouts were then interviewed and they all said they knew about the eye issue already and it didn't affect their view(pun!) of him as a pro.
This latest news is simply crushing. Austin was an elite prep, a mainstay in draft discussions for 3 seasons, and he is now done with basketball for life. It would be impossible to not have basketball be a significant part of your identity as a person if you were that great for that long and were talked about that much during your developmental years.
And now its all gone. Brutal.
He has an NCAA insurance policy for $1mm. It cost $5k to set up and covered him for any career ending issues. That's nothing to scoff at, especially since its tax free, but it still wont come close to helping him find his identity without basketball.
Wonder what he will do now?
Just a lanky guy that was close to the top of his class and he has had 2 good seasons, by college basketball standards, but hardly impressive. He does nothing very well. But then he comes out of college even though he wasn't projected high. It really seemed, at the time, that he could have stayed and improved for at least another year.
And then mid-year its revealed he was missing an eye! Shortly after a bunch of NBA scouts were then interviewed and they all said they knew about the eye issue already and it didn't affect their view(pun!) of him as a pro.
This latest news is simply crushing. Austin was an elite prep, a mainstay in draft discussions for 3 seasons, and he is now done with basketball for life. It would be impossible to not have basketball be a significant part of your identity as a person if you were that great for that long and were talked about that much during your developmental years.
And now its all gone. Brutal.
He has an NCAA insurance policy for $1mm. It cost $5k to set up and covered him for any career ending issues. That's nothing to scoff at, especially since its tax free, but it still wont come close to helping him find his identity without basketball.
Wonder what he will do now?