NBA or NOBEL?

 


So, as your fairy godfather, I can grant you wish between these two choices - an outstanding career in the NBA leading to a Championship or an outstanding career in the Academy leading to a Nobel Prize.  Register your 'vote' on the poll and it would be nice if you would add a comment about why you chose one way or the other.

My Letter to the Editor of the Boulder Daily Camera - this is what got me started....

I would wager a couple of dinners at Jax that the Camera used more ink covering Spencer Dinwiddie’s decision to leave CU for the NBA draft than in reporting CU-Boulder’s Tom Cech winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  It seems apparent to some of us that winning a Nobel at age 42 is a couple of orders of magnitude [for at-risk CU admits, that’s 100 times] more significant than a very good player, from a team that may be among the top 50 in the country, leaving school.  Like many basketball fans, I too would have liked to see Spencer continue at CU, but also understand that the lure of the NBA is a prime consideration for athlete-students.  Who wouldn’t be tempted by an annual salary that is more than many CU folks will make during their careers?  Also like many fans, I too wish him well in the upcoming draft.  However, as a long-time player, I must take issue with his self-analysis of ‘having first round talent’.  There is no doubt that he has many/most/all of the attributes of a first round pick, but basketball talent is only a portion of the requirements.  There are thousands of players who have as much basketball talent at Spencer – even my career statistics are at least as good as his, but alas, I am barely 5’10” – and thus physical attributes are an important part of the draft-day equation.  Spencer has no doubt worked hard to get where he is today, but he should also give a hat tip to his genes for at least some of his privileged position.