By Seth Rubinroit
Photos by Seth and Sam Rubinroit

Life is good for Lakers’ center Andrew Bynum. He is returning from a right knee injury to a team that is poised to advance far in the playoffs. However, life would have been different for Bynum if he had decided to attend the University of Connecticut out of high school rather than declaring for the NBA draft.

“I do not really think about that,” Bynum said at the NBA Summer Pro League in 2006 about going to UCONN. “I think my decision was good. I am learning from Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant, so I do not think UCONN would have more than that to offer.”
Coming out of St. Joseph High School in New Jersey, Bynum was expected to step into a talented UCONN team and help offset the loss of forward Charlie Villanueva. After winning the Big East Regular Season Championship the year before, there were high expectations for the Huskies. Led by talented forwards Rudy Gay and Josh Boone, UCONN was ranked second in the 2005-2006 ESPN/USA Today Preseason Poll.

However, Bynum decided to declare for the 2005 NBA Draft, where he was selected tenth by the Lakers. Bynum was the youngest player ever drafted, as well as the youngest player to play in an NBA game. It quickly became apparent, however, that Bynum was not ready for the NBA. In his rookie season, Bynum appeared in 46 games, and averaged 7.3 minutes, 1.6 points, and 1.7 rebounds per game. He only made 29.6% of his free throws.
UCONN, on the other hand, flourished without Bynum. The team advanced to the Elite Eight. UCONN tied the record with four players being selected in the first round, with Rudy Gay, Hilton Armstrong, Marcus Williams, and Josh Boone all being picked. Denham Brown was also selected in the second round.
With so much talent on the roster, there were questions about how much Bynum would have played at UCONN. Boone averaged 10.3 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks at the power forward position. Armstrong was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year. Ed Nelson and Jeff Adrien played quality minutes at the post positions.
At the 2006 NBA Summer Pro League, UCONN teammates Rudy Gay and Rashad Anderson disagreed about to impact Bynum would have had with the Huskies.
Gay, who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, said, “With the way Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone [played], and with the athletic ability that [Bynum] has, I’m not sure how much [Bynum] would have played, but I’m sure he would have played a good deal with us.”
Anderson, on the other hand, said, “[Bynum] would not have [played] because he would not have dominated. He could not have played in front of Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone.”
Hall of Fame UCONN coach Jim Calhoun answered the question about how much playing time Bynum would have received, saying before a game against the Pepperdine Waves in 2005, “He’d have a tough time starting in our frontcourt, and yet he would play for us. I do not think you can put a small price tag on that.”
Since Bynum decided to forgo college, the NBA has created a new rule that requires players to be removed a year from graduating high school before becoming eligible for the draft. This rule has allowed players to gain experience and realize and remedy their weaknesses, and made college basketball more exciting with players such as Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, and O.J. Mayo dominating the game for a year before turning pro.
Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who went to UCLA and now mentors Bynum with the Lakers, is a strong proponent of going to college.
“College is a good place for young players to learn the game in an atmosphere that is not high pressure,” Abdul-Jabbar said recently during an interview in his Long Beach office. “For someone with a lot of athletic talent to go from high school straight to the professional ranks is really detrimental because in the professional ranks, they do not have the time to learn what they need to learn slowly and completely. They try to rush to get it done, and in that rush, they miss-out on things, and their progress actually slows up. LeBron James came into the league when he was 18 years old, but he did not start dominating play until he was 23 years old. There was a three or four year gap where he had to learn things through trial and error. College is a much better environment for that to happen. Of course they do not pay you $30 million to go to college, and I understand that it is a hard choice, but college is a much better place to learn the game.”
Skipping college worked out well for the Lakers and Bynum, who is now one of the most promising young centers in the NBA when healthy. However, it would have been special to see Bynum play and develop on such a talented UCONN team.