In honor of Kobe and KG: ranking the NBA high school draftees

Were they wrong to skip college?

On Saturday (May 15 2021) Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant, among others, will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Each of them stand out from typical NBA Hall-of-Famers. Duncan was rare in the modern era for playing all four years of college (and graduating) before entering the NBA draft in 1997. Garnett (1995) and Bryant (1996) were pioneers in the opposite direction: they went straight from high school to the NBA draft, something not seen since the mid 1970's.

They ushered in an era in which 39 high schoolers were drafted from 1995 through 2005. The NBA has since required that players be 19 years old and one year removed from their graduating high school class before entering the draft.

Of the 39, three have been elected to the Hall (Tracy McGrady was inducted in 2017). Two more, LeBron James (I won’t rehearse his accomlishments) and Dwight Howard (8-time all-NBA, multiple times Defensive Player of the Year) are certain to be inducted; Amar’e Stoudamire might be one day. Pick any NBA players at random, you wouldn’t find that many Hall of Famers.

Notably, however, Garnett, Bryan, and McGrady are three of the first four high schoolers drafted. Jermaine O’Neal was drafted four spots after Bryant in 1996, and he was also a star player.