Five-star recruit Mitchell Robinson, who initially enrolled at Western Kentucky, has left the program and is not expected to play college ball in 2017/18, according to Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports. Jon Rothstein of FanRagSports had reported several days ago that Robinson was considering sitting out the season in order to prepare for the 2018 NBA draft.
Robinson, a seven-footer who is considered a likely first-round pick next summer, had been considering transferring to Kansas or another school, but would probably have had to sit out the 2017/18 season anyway in that scenario, Forde notes. Robinson could opt to go the Terrance Ferguson route and play in another professional league for one year, but a high-level European club is unlikely to rent the young center for a single season, tweets ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla.
As we wait to see what the future holds for Robinson, let’s round up a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world…
- As we detailed earlier in the week, O.J. Mayo‘s two-year ban from the NBA ensures that he’ll sit out at least one more season. However, that ban doesn’t preclude him from playing in the G League. Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days looks into whether it makes sense for Mayo to suit up for a G League club this season in an effort to rehabilitate his image and stay on the radar of NBA teams.
- This week’s Kyrie Irving mega-deal is the latest signal that the NBA is becoming a year-round league, Sam Amick writes in an interesting piece for USA Today. As Amick observes, the non-stop drama of the NBA offseason is good news for commissioner Adam Silver, who has expressed a desire to rival the NFL in terms of popularity.
- With the 2017 Eurobasket tournament around the corner, several teams are finalizing and announcing their rosters. Via Sportando, here are the 12-man squads for Spain and Lithuania, each of which feature multiple NBA players.
- After playing Summer League ball for the Knicks, undrafted rookie Canyon Barry will begin his professional career in Finland. The son of Rick Barry spoke to Ian Begley of ESPN.com about his father’s influence on his game, including his free-throw shooting style.
Since the NBA already in essence has two seasons, maybe they should just go all in with that idea. Winter champs, Spring champs.
I think the NBA will instead stretch the season out like how they did for this year. This works for both the league, which becomes a year round sport, and the player’s association since there wouldn’t be back to back to backs