Player of the Year

Not really following college basketball, I knew that putting up good numbers in college has only a vague relationship to being a great NBA player, but just this morning I saw the actual list of college Player of the Year award winners. It's sobering:

• 1988 - Danny Manning, Kansas
• 1989 - Danny Ferry, Duke
• 1990 - Lionel Simmons, LaSalle
• 1991 - Larry Johnson, UNLV
• 1992 - Christian Laettner, Duke
• 1993 - Calbert Cheaney, Indiana
• 1994 - Glenn Robinson, Purdue
• 1995 - Joe Smith, Maryland
• 1996 - Marcus Camby, Massachusetts
• 1997 - Tim Duncan, Wake Forest
• 1998 - Antawn Jamison, North Carolina
• 1999 - Elton Brand, Duke
• 2000 - Kenyon Martin, Cincinnati
• 2001 - Shane Battier, Duke
• 2002 - Jason Williams, Duke
• 2003 - T. J. Ford, Texas
• 2004 - Jameer Nelson, St. Joseph's
• 2005 - Andrew Bogut, Utah
• 2006 - J.J. Redick, Duke

There are some good players on this list. Elton Brand doesn't get the recognition he deserves and Marcus Camby's contribution to Denver is, I think, frequently understated. Nevertheless, it's hard to avoid noticing that of the guys on this list only Tim Duncan is a legit franchise player.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/02/player-of-the-year/41396/