Awak Kuier Going Pro

[Fairfield Fan]

View attachment 49248

Can you put a break on the snark? Care to behave yourself? I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

 

[awhom111]

She's always been in Finland. Goes to school there, plays for Helmi.

Here are her stats for the Helsinki Basketball Academy:

Pelaaja

www.basket.fi

It is a team of young players, some of whom will eventually come here for college, but they compete in the top division in Finland where the other teams have up to three Americans on them.

 

[todbo]

If she can play pro ball in Europe, make a bunch of money and get recognition, why on Earth would she come to the WNBA and risk injury playing for peanuts? College is less and less exclusively for young people (My stepdaughter, for instance, got her BA at 45 and will get her Ivy League masters' at 49.). If a kid can live her dream right out of high school, play a few seasons of pro ball, and later choose college (or not), more power to her.

 

[hussybulldog]

Bad advice. In fact, total irresponsible advice. Stinks. Shameful. Basketball, as a career, is open only to a few, and even to those who make it, their careers are short, sometimes from injury. A college education, on the other hand, is for life.

North Carolina kind of education?

 

[JoePgh]

If she can play pro ball in Europe, make a bunch of money and get recognition, why on Earth would she come to the WNBA and risk injury playing for peanuts? College is less and less exclusively for young people (My stepdaughter, for instance, got her BA at 45 and will get her Ivy League masters' at 49.). If a kid can live her dream right out of high school, play a few seasons of pro ball, and later choose college (or not), more power to her.

This point of view gets repeated very often on this board. What it misses (IMHO) is the fact that the WNBA remains the best basketball league in the world regardless of its pay scale. That means that it is beneficial for players from anywhere in the world to play in the WNBA and establish their basketball credentials against the best competition in the world, which then makes them more attractive to pro teams elsewhere that pay the big bucks.

That is why you rarely, if ever, see a YOUNG American player spurn the WNBA. Yes, people like Diana can take time off from the WNBA after they are well established abroad, and some overseas players are content not to see how they would measure up in the WNBA, but players like Emma Meesseman and a number of Australian players (of whom the latest appears to be Ezi Magbegor) still come to the US and play in the W. They may skip an Olympic year to be with their national teams, but in the other 3 out of 4 years they are in the W. And for a very pragmatic purpose -- to establish their credentials and get properly paid overseas.

 

[Sakibomb25]

Bad advice. In fact, total irresponsible advice. Stinks. Shameful. Basketball, as a career, is open only to a few, and even to those who make it, their careers are short, sometimes from injury. A college education, on the other hand, is for life.

But if she can still get a free education in Finland (according to a poster above), then she still has an education to fall back on...

 

[Dokey]

It was great advice. WNBA career is perfectly compatible with getting a college degree.

Nonsense

 

[meyers7]

Can you put a break on the snark? Care to behave yourself? I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

Ah come on, snark is what makes this place interesting.

 

[HopJim]

Of course, a great number of European women don't need to come to America to play for the WNBA and that league's crappy pay. Better to save their bodies, extend their careers, and only pay for the Big Bucks in Europe, Russia, and Turkey.

Belgian star Emma Meeseman blew off the WNBA in favor of prepping for the Belgian national team. And other players seem to regularly take off a season or two to either rest up or do something else with their lives.

Always tough to advocate one way or another, go college or pros. In any profession, I always counsel to look at the long term, not just 2-3+ years. If you have a brand image, as the top US college players have, you make more particularly in Europe and Asia. Having a college degree helps after that. Yes, you could get injured in college but you could also fail or be average as a pro and be left the no post bball career and few prospects.

 

[Argonaut]

But if she can still get a free education in Finland (according to a poster above), then she still has an education to fall back on...

From Study.eu...

1. Can you study in Finland for free?
Yes, you can!

If you are a citizen of a country in the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) countries, or Switzerland, you can study in Finland for free - you do not have to pay any tuition fees.

--

You can Google it and find a lot of articles about how it all works, but yea, if basketball doesn't work out she'll still be able to get a free college education.

 

[Superhuskies]

She could also "study" at..UConn...for "free.".. G.A. would be her "tutor"..