Three NBA Stars Who Started Their Pro Careers in High School

By  //  April 13, 2020

There is no indication of when one has to start building their career or at least choose a profession. In some cases, students manage to do it while being in high school, following their dreams.

There is no indication of when one has to start building their career or at least choose a profession. In some cases, students manage to do it while being in high school, following their dreams.

In others – it takes some time. When it comes to basketball, there is the frequent practice of looking for good players in high-school basketball teams.

Some of those players get drafted directly into the NBA, and for a good reason, they usually make the global basketball history, being called legends of one of the most popular sports.

Among the most successful NBA players who started their professional careers while still being in high school are Moses Malone, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. 

Moses Malone

Malone studied at  Petersburg High School and played basketball for the school’s Crimson Wave. In his two final years at the school, his team was undefeated and won 50 games.

At the end of his study, Malone signed an agreement to play basketball for the University of Maryland. At the age of 19, Moses Malone was drafted into the ABA, and only two years later, the NBA-ABA merger took place.

At the ABA, Malone was selected for several rounds in a row, and that’s when he decided that he wants to make it into a career. He started playing at forward and later on moved to a center position. 

Because of the merger, he started playing for the Buffalo Braves, but being unable to see just how talented he is, he got traded to play for the Houston Rockets.

Soon after that, in 1979, he was named the league’s most valuable player. According to The New Your Times, he was the first high schooler to “go pro.”

Malone was undefeatable because of his relentlessness and excellent physical play. He also proved himself to be a very good passer.

Kobe Bryant

The second high school graduate to be drafted into professional basketball in the 90s, he was a legend in the history of the NBA.

Because of his outstanding athleticism, he quickly gained a big number of fans who followed his career from the very beginning to the very end.

He won NBA titles one after another, securing his place on the pedestal of sports fame. Bryant started out as a team member but quickly rose to the position of an unquestioned leader of his team, and he was a basketball unicorn, an all-round player. 

After finishing his career in the NBA, Kobe Bryant was helping his daughter, Gigi, start a career in basketball. What might come as a surprise about Bryant is that he wasn’t just into sports.

Back in high school, he was a member of a rap group called CHEIZAW. He even made several television appearances playing himself in such series as All That when his fame was everywhere.

When one has a life as active as this, it might be hard to keep up with all the high-school assignments. That’s when it’s reasonable to find a good essay writing service

LeBron James

He is claimed to be the most publicized athlete in the history of high-school sports. His talent was noticed back in high school, and even before he had his very first game, this basketball player had signed a $90 million deal.

There is no doubt that he might be the most physically gifted player in the history of the NBA, considering his speed and strength. Sometimes people compare him to Michael Jordan, calling him the best basketball player of all time. Among his other accomplishments in sports, LeBron James holds two Olympic gold medals.

He also does his part for the global society by investing in education. In 2015, James started a partnership with the University of Akron to sponsor 2,300 scholarships for children in 2021.

LeBron James also appears to be interested in music: in 2019, it was announced that he was going to produce the new album of 2 Chainz, a rapper. The album is supposed to be celebrating black excellence and the power of education.

Starting a professional career in high school sounds like something pretty much impossible, but it can be a reality in two cases. Case number one – you already know your future profession and start working for it as soon as possible.

Case number two – you do what is mentioned in case one, play basketball really well, and get noticed by some representatives of the NBA or some other league or institution.

At least this is the way it happened for Moses Malone, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. They worked hard and invested a lot of time into their basketball skills, and it paid off a great deal – they got drafted into the NBA, the ultimate dream of many basketball lovers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phil Collins is a professional writer with more than five years of experience in the essay writing service industry. His primary specialization is English and History, but he writes on a great number of other topics.

His texts are always of the best quality and meet all the citation (APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago) and customer requirements. In his free time, he loves writing occasional pieces on topics he finds interesting and exciting for online publishers. 

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