You Didn't Hear It From Us... pt. III

The Investigative journalists at Them Sports were able to uncover the winners of the College Basketball end of season awards before any other source, take that Hannah storm. This is part 3 of a 4 part series with the results.

Freshman of the Year:

Brandon Jennings

If you want to argue semantics, and I'm sure some of you do, I guess Freshman of the Year isn't totally accurate. Whatever you want to call it; Rookie of the year, Player of the year, Man of the year, Brandon Jennings deserves to win something, and I've learned to make exceptions since I voted for Barack Obama (I'm very prejudiced against Bulls Fans). His actions have transcended basketball. Simply put, he made a tremendous contribution to the advancement of the human condition.

It all began in 2004. The drafting of Robert Swift, a High Schooler/Shaun White impersonator/bust by the Seattle Supersonics was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. Prep to pro players that weren't ready were becoming too commonplace, and too often was a good education being passed over in lieu of fantastic wealth. Commissioner David Stern knew he had to close that door, lest another Swift walk through. He mandated that High School players must attend at least one year of college before entering the draft, and he continues to penalize the Franchise that finally pushed him over the edge (see: Boot from Seattle, Loss of name and banners, and jerseys that make them look like the away team on a sitcom about basketball). 

The rule was generally praised for putting a greater emphasis on education when many thought the game was beginning to lose that focus. But you can't please everyone, and everyone's name is Brandon Jennings; a classic prep-to-pro case. He was committed to play basketball at Arizona, and masquerade as a student at their university, when he found out  that his SAT scores weren't gonna cut it (What do you think is higher by the way, the minimum SAT requirement for the NCAA or the number of toes on your foot? All I'm saying is that when basketball players worry about tests they're usually paternity, not standardized). Jennings found himself between a rock and a hard place. A quitter would have studied hard for the next round of SATs and try to raise their score; Jennings would find a way. 

As it turns out, that NBA rule only requires that players be one year removed from their high-school graduation, not necessarily that they spend that year in college. It's like prison; you don't have to get better you just have to be there. Jennings exploited that loophole and signed a 1 year contract to play for Lottomatica in Rome, Italy. Much like internet porn, the euro basketball league has very "flexible" age restrictions. He would fulfill the NBA's requirement to be draft eligible and still avoid a free collegiate education, thank god. 

In this day in age, when no child is being left behind it would have been easy for Jennings to float with the pro-education current down the river of American Society. But revolutionaries tend to swim upstream. In doing so Jennings showed the world that the shackles of a free education don't have to bind those already burdened with supreme talent. He is the leader of new generation of high school athletes that won't take yes for an answer.

I called Jennings a revolutionary above with no hesitation. I look at him in the same class as George Washington for leading the colonies against the oppression of British rule, and Che Guevara for whatever it is he did. The problem is that revolutionaries are rarely recognized as such in their own time. Maybe in the future, when the demolition of the American Education System is finished, we can remember 2009 Them Freshman of the Year Brandon Jennings for swinging the first hammer.