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NBA: 30 best careers from players who skipped college

By Josh Cornelissen

LeBron James, Miami Heat and Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers. Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images
LeBron James, Miami Heat and Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers. Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images /
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Jermaine O'Neal
Jermaine O’Neal, Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images /

30 best careers from players who skipped college – 8. Jermaine O’Neal

Jermaine O’Neal entered the league direct from high school in 1996, through the door opened by Kevin Garnett. A dominant player at his Columbia, SC school, O’Neal wasn’t even 18 when he signed a contract with the Portland Trail Blazers. He packed up and moved to Oregon, completely unprepared for life as a professional basketball player.

It took O’Neal a long time to acclimate to the league. He joined a Portland team loaded up for a run at the title, and there wasn’t much space for a teenager who needed help adjusting to the professional game. As one of the first few high schoolers to make the leap, O’Neal lacked even the resources available to later prep-to-pro players as the league and teams realized the need for more hands-on help for these teenage draftees.

A slow start by no means meant a failed one, however. In 2000 he was traded to the Indiana Pacers for All-Star Dale Davis, and with his newfound playing time, blossomed into one of the better centers in the Eastern Conference. By the 2001-02 season he was averaging 19 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game, earning Most Improved award honors and his first All-Star nod.

O’Neal would make six All-Star games in total, all with the Indiana Pacers, a walking double double who swallowed opponents at the rim. He made three All-NBA teams as well, and in 2004, O’Neal finished 3rd in MVP voting, behind fellow prep-to-pro Kevin Garnett who won the award.

O’Neal made his way around the league during the downslope of his career, playing with the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and finally, Golden State Warriors before retiring at the age of 36, 18 years into a wildly successful career.