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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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Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett, Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images /

30 best careers from players who skipped college – 3. Kevin Garnett

Kevin Garnett was rail thin as a 17-year-old trying out for NBA scouts, but that did not stop them from seeing his potential. After a childhood in rural South Carolina where he learned to play basketball and to talk trash, Garnett spent his senior season in Chicago, where he led his team to a city championship and auditioned for a combination of college and professional scouts.

No player since Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby in the 1970s had made the leap right from high school to the NBA. Shawn Kemp enrolled in college but never ended up playing a game, and his star turn was a glimmer of hope for NBA front offices looking to grab elite talent early.

In Kevin Garnett, they saw their chance as his talent was undeniable and his situation exploitable. Garnett’s test scores, a necessity for college, were low enough to put his college career in doubt. Enough NBA scouts saw him play and work out as a high schooler, including Kevin McHale and Flip Saunders of the Minnesota Timberwolves, that he was a lock to go in the lottery of the 1995 NBA Draft. That created the environment for Garnett to be the trailblazer, announcing himself eligible for the NBA draft and starting a movement that would last for over a decade.

The Timberwolves did take Garnett with the fifth pick, and by the middle of his rookie season, he was starting. By his second campaign, he was averaging 17 points and 8 rebounds per game, the start to a long and prolific career. Garnett made the All-Star Game 10 times in his first 12 seasons with the Timberwolves and another five times with the Boston Celtics where he won his only title in 2008.

Garnett didn’t just become a star, he became one of the best defenders and ultimate competitors. 12 times he made an All-Defense team, winning Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. He was an offensive star as well, making nine All NBA teams and winning the league MVP award in 2004. The recently inducted Hall of Fame forward was one of the best players of his generation, a career he forged on his terms and without the help of a season in college.