NBA 2014 Draft - Jabari Parker To Stay One More Year At Duke? He'll Join Chicago Native Jahlil Okafor And Make The Blue Devils A Powerhouse!
All that tanking for the NBA 2014 Draft may not pay off after all. One of the top prospects is rumored to have cold feet about the draft. Jabari Parker chose Duke, and Coach K might convince him to stay.
The lure of winning is just too hard to resist, all the more for someone like Jabari Parker. He has won and dominated at every level, and he has every intention to do the same in college. He was Mr. Basketball of Illinois for two straight years in high school, beating no less than Jahlil Okafor and Cliff Alexander, the top two high school seniors in the USA this year. He also won National Player of the Year honors. (Source:ESPN)
He chose to enroll at Duke primarily to be coached by Mike Krsyzewski, or Coach K. The head coach of Team USA has recently brandished his recruiting prowess by signing three of the top 10 high school seniors in the country.
However, for this year, Duke has to face some heavy competition. Top recruiting classes from Kansas and Kentucky, featuring fellow freshman phenoms are in the way. There are also the top seeded teams with a mix of veterans and freshmen like Michigan State, Arizona, UCLA and Syracuse. In the current AP rankings, Duke is only at 18 with a 14-4 record.
They are a long shot to win it all primarily because of their weakness at the frontline, a weakness that will be addressed by the top recruit of the nation, the aforementioned Jahlil Okafor, a fellow Chicago native. Along with Tyus Edney and Justise Winslow, Duke has the top ranked recruiting class in both Yahoo and ESPN.
That prospect has brought about the rumblings among NBA executives that Jabari might stay in college. On the issue of his son's future, Sonny Parker told WEEI.com: "My wife, my son and I haven't talked about it. We honestly don't know. After the season, we'll talk about it. That's what I told Coach K when he was recruiting Jabari, and that's what I tell him now.
"We just want Jabari to enjoy the season. People can speculate all they want, but it's not a discussion. Right now, he's dealing with being a student-athlete at Duke. He's not entertaining that."
For teams that were 'Sorry for Jabari' they might just end up being 'sorry.' Parker is not hard-pressed to turn pro (at least financially) and he would be a sure 1st overall pick in 2015 (it is not a certainty for him in 2014). Also, the chance to etch his name among Duke's legends may be hard to pass up.
