“Just picked out my classes for this fall,” tweeted one Kyrie Irving, first overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. “Back to school it is!!!”
Such is the life for a rookie in a league that has ceased operation. Irving, who’s father insists that a one-and-done career path was not in the cards one year earlier, will go back to Duke University and take coursework like many other 19-year-olds within the same institution. While others within Irving’s freshly acquired peer group are fielding offers from potential overseas employers, he and his teammate Tristan Thompson are opting to continue their education while they wait out the current impasse that is the NBA and their labor negotiations.
Irving was taken 1st overall by the Cavaliers, and Thompson was taken with the 4th overall pick. According to the article, Thompson is staying in classes in order to prepare for life after basketball, and Irving plans on being at Duke in the summers and being around the campus “as much as he can.”
It seems like this lockout would be tougher than the league’s rookies than anybody else, as they will almost certainly miss the pre-season work that is so critical to get before their first NBA games. Still, Irving and Thompson appear to be keeping their heads on their shoulders, and more schooling is almost never a bad thing in the long run.
