NBA Veterans: Is It the Years or the Mileage?

One of the most memorable lines in movie history comes from Raiders of the Lost Ark . Marion, says to Indiana Jones, "You're not the man I knew ten years ago." Indy replies, "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage." In 1995, Kevin Garnett became the first high school senior in 20 years to bypass college and jump directly to the NBA. It hadn't happened since 1975, when Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby were drafted by the 76ers and Hawks, respectively. There were a few players, like Shawn Kemp and Lloyd Daniels, who had enrolled in college but never played collegiate basketball before being drafted, but Garnett was the first since '75 to make the immediate jump. Garnett's currently in his 12th season in the NBA and has shown very little drop-off in how effective he is on the basketball court. Even though his averages in points and rebounds are a little off from last season, that can be attributed more to the talent that now surrounds him in Boston more so than ... [link]