Hey ESPN, Enjoy Hyping up Jennings.

Remember all this unsavoriness?

Now go look at THIS.

With the way he's been playing this season ESPN has to hype Jennings. I imagine they will conveniently never bring up that time they actively tried to bury him and his apple-cart tipping ways.

Petteri Koponen Watch: Brandon Jennings can't wait for the NBA edition

In an effort to improve the human condition, H.T. has selflessly provided us with updates on the development of Blazer's draftee Petteri Koponen in Italy. Here is the latest...

Italian Cup quarter-finals tipped off Thursday night at FuturShow Station of Bologna. Petteri Koponen's team, La Fortezza Bologna, faced Brandon Jennings and Lottomatica Roma in front of sold-out home crowd and the outcome was definitely crowd-pleasing, with Bologna dominating from opening tip until the final buzzer.

Lottomatica started the game pretty well with point guard Ibrahim Jaaber pressuring Earl Boykins from early on. Bologna coach Matteo Bonicinolli placed Koponen on Jaaber, trying to make playmaking as miserable as possible for the Brooklyn-born point guard. After an even first quarter, Bologna outscored Lottomatica Roma 11-2 in the first four minutes of second quarter and managed to pull an 48-32 overtime lead.

It wasn't enough, though. Lottomatica's Ruben Douglas was fantastic from behind the arc in the third quarter and Bologna couldn't get the ball moving while Lottomatica came within six points, 65-59. In fourth quarter, Bologna's Dusan Vukcevic caught fire and Bologna's strong on-ball defence frustrated Lottomatica. Virtus Bologna won the game 85-76 and proceeded to cup semifinals against Banca Tercas Teramo.

Petteri Koponen started the game for Bologna and played 18 minutes. Even though his defence was once again pretty good (Ibrahim Jaaber's field goals: 3/9), he struggled a bit on offence, ending up with 3 points (field goals 1/4), one rebound and two personal fouls.

Brandon Jennings didn't have too much to do with the game's outcome, either. In 12 minutes of play, Jennings had 5 points (fg 2/3), one rebound, one assist, one steal and two fouls. Jennings and Koponen guarded each other for a while at the end of third quarter.

For Bologna, Earl Boykins had 21 points and 9 assists. Sharrod Ford had 16 points and 7 rebounds while Dusan Vukcevic scored 15. Andre Hutson had 16 and Ruben Douglas had 15 for Lottomatica Roma.

Virtus Bologna will meet Banca Tercas Teramo this Saturday. The winner of the game will advance to the Italian Cup Final. Teramo's most notable players are Brandon Brown, David Moss, Jaycee Carroll, Giuseppe Poeta and Valerio Amoroso.


-H.T.

ESPN reports on Brandon Jennings as if they have some sort of interest in keeping others from following his path

Which of course can't be true, because those folks are all about objective journalism.

This begins with the recent Brandon Jennings quote ESPN has been running lately about how terrible things are going for him in Italy:

“I’ve gotten paid on time once this year… They treat me like I’m a little kid. They don’t see me as a man. If you get on a good team, you might not play a lot. Some nights you’ll play a lot; some nights you won’t play at all. That’s just how it is… I don’t see too many kids doing it. It’s tough man, I’ll tell you that. It can break you.”

Here is one message you can take away from that quote:

You hear that talented high-school kids? Think you can skip out on attending an American College and earn money and professional experience while waiting until you are old enough for the NBA Draft? Ha! You won't get to play, and you probably will have trouble getting paid. Look at Jennings! Stick with the system!

At least, that is how the quote struck me. If you actually bother to read the article or report other assertions of the article (hi ESPN), you will see that it hasn't all been bad for Jennings. In that same column Jennings also states that his experiences have helped him mature. There was also this:

An N.B.A. assistant coach who has been to Europe and has watched Jennings play said his potential draft standing had not been harmed. “I think it is good for him. He was getting a defensive component that he needed. If I was a scout and I needed a point guard, I would be extremely impressed with what he has done over there.”

Oh. That. It looked shady that ESPN only reported the quote about how horrible it has been for Jennings. After all, they make a lot of money showing college basketball and logically would not want the top young talents of the country skipping that route. They need stars. They need ratings.

But as Ryan Jones at Slam Online pointed out, ESPN took some other reporting measures that may have taken their reporting from possibly questionable to nefarious:

Then came Saturday night, when I sat in the press room before the Penn State-Iowa game and saw ESPN scrolling the Jennings’ “warning” as some sort of breaking news along their bottom-line feed. This was during the broadcast of a college basketball game (Wisconsin-Illinois, I think) so it made such beautiful sense for the network of universal coach apologists like Dickie V (who I mostly like, honest) and Big Monday and everything else to run snippets of Jennings’ quotes. If you didn’t actually read the Times story, and only saw the ticker (or read the follow-up gloating of some national columnists), you’d think Jennings was on the next boat home, a miserable, apologetic prodigal son.

I was happy when Brandon Jennings first chose his post-high school path. The actions of ESPN have pushed me to be even more in favor of other American players following in his footsteps. I love college basketball too, but I love fairness even more.

Brandon Jennings bigger than Brandon Jennings

And the American Dream strikes back. Brandon Jennings is no longer just playing with the idea of skipping a year of college basketball and playing a season in Europe, he wants to make it happen. He is the first to take this alternate approach to the NBA's age limit, but hopefully not the last.

The requirement to be nineteen years of age to be eligible for the NBA always inspires a sense of ickyness deep within me. So you are going to tell a legal adult that they cannot play in the NBA? They can vote? They can go to war? But they can't play in the NBA? Seriously?

The logic used for justification of the age requirement never holds up during closer examination. The League will tell you it gives the players a chance to develop and mature. They won't give you a direct comparison of the careers of players straight from high school versus those who played in college. They won't because a whole lot of those unprepared, immature players seem to be doing pretty well. At the least, they do no worse than their collegiate counterparts.

They might tell you it gets the pro scouts away from high schools, helps these young super talents to just be "regular kids," if only for a little while longer. How noble, unfortunately that is a little detached as well. The elite levels of youth basketball are already saturated with a whole lot of seedy business that will exist as long as some of the players will eventually have NBA fame and money. Sneaker companies, wanna be financial advisers, leechers of various types, these elements are in that environment regardless of an age limit.

Additionally, you think NBA teams are content with only observing a very promising talent for their one year of college? Scouts honor? The NBA somehow knew a whole lot about Michael Beasley before he got to K-State, just like they know a whole lot about Tyreke Evans now.

Who really benefits from the age requirement? The NCAA gets a boost by having the brightest stars stop by college for a year. The NBA gets a boost as the players come into the league already known at at a national level and ready revenue generating cogs in the wheel.

The whole thing from the justification we are expected to believe to who really benefits from such a policy stinks. I am grateful for Brandon Jennings.