Rutgers Basketball Star to Turn Pro in Europe
Epiphanny Prince, a third-team all-American guard for Rutgers who once scored 113 points in a high school game, plans to skip her senior season and play basketball professionally in Europe before entering the 2010 W.N.B.A. draft.
Prince, 21, is among the first American women to decide on such a path. She has yet to sign with an agent or a team, although possible destinations include Poland, Turkey, Russia and Spain.
“I’m not really concerned with being the first person to do this,” she said in an interview. “This is the right decision for me and my family.”
Prince’s move is part of an emerging — and, until now, exclusively male — trend.
Men are ineligible for the N.B.A. draft until one year after their high school class graduates. Instead of using a season of college basketball as a springboard to the pros, some have chosen alternate routes. Brandon Jennings spent the past year honing his game in Italy before submitting his name for the coming N.B.A. draft. Jeremy Tyler recently announced he would leave San Diego High School a year early, rescind his commitment to attend Louisville and play two seasons in Europe before declaring for the 2011 draft.
“The world is changing,” said Sonny Vaccaro, a former sneaker company executive who has advised Jennings and Tyler. “This is where we’re at today. This is 2009. Here’s a young lady who made a landmark decision.”
Women hoping to follow Prince’s lead face more stringent draft rules than men do. The W.N.B.A. requires players to be at least 22, to have completed their college eligibility, to have graduated from a four-year college or to be four years removed from high school. Prince turns 22 in January and she plans to graduate from Rutgers before the draft.
Prince will likely earn more money in Europe than she would be covered for under a program that allows “exceptional” N.C.A.A. athletes to buy insurance to protect themselves in the event of catastrophic injury or illness during their college careers.
The program, which is endorsed by the N.C.A.A., determines the amount of coverage based on a player’s draft status and potential earnings. While the maximum coverage for a men’s basketball player is $4.4 million, the policy for a women’s player like Prince is capped at $250,000 — a factor that also served as a catalyst for her decision.
Women’s professional players can receive lucrative contracts abroad, and Prince is expected to land a six-figure deal.
“Girls have always been behind the boys,” said Apache Paschall, the coach of the New York-based Amateur Athletic Union team that Prince once starred for. “This will open the door. It’s always going to be harder with a girl because society is going to see it as, that’s my baby leaving. By her doing this, it will start to change that view.”
Prince would not be the first woman to go on to the W.N.B.A. with eligibility remaining. Candace Parker, the Los Angeles forward, spent four years at Tennessee and earned a degree, but she did not play her freshman season because of a knee injury. Parker chose to forgo her final year of eligibility to enter the 2008 draft. Britany Miller left Florida State for academic reasons and played in the Czech Republic for a year before being drafted by Detroit in April.
Louisiana State Coach Van Chancellor, who led Houston to four W.N.B.A. titles, said he hoped Prince was not a trendsetter.
“I really hate to see any college kid leave college before their eligibility is up,” he said. “I’ve been a pro coach. I’ve been a college coach. I’ve seen every side of this deal. And the equation is such that it’s hard enough in the women’s game to make enough money for a lifetime. You’re going to have to have a college education.”
The 5-foot-9 Prince, who played three seasons for Rutgers, made her decision after consulting with her mentors and her family. Some initially reacted with concern, but Prince eased their worries with a thorough plan. She promised her mother, Kathy Williams-Prince, that she would graduate from Rutgers. Prince said that she was 10 units from earning her degree, a double major in criminal justice and African-American studies, and that she planned to start summer school in July.
Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer declined an interview request. A statement released by Rutgers said Stringer was informed of Prince’s decision on Tuesday afternoon.
“Epiphanny is a phenomenal basketball player and an even more special young woman,” Stringer said in the statement. “I thank Piph for her contributions to Rutgers women’s basketball over the past three years and wish her the best in the future as she pursues a career in basketball.”
Williams-Prince, 40, said her daughter was always ahead of the pack. As the only girl on her junior high team, Epiphanny Prince won most valuable player honors. She set a national single-game scoring record with her 113-point effort while at Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan.
“I have to release her to the world,” Williams-Prince said. “I’m not a dream-buster. Epiphanny is a trendsetter, a trailblazer, in all that she does. I’ve known that since birth. She has always been doing something that’s never been done.”
Prince averaged 12.2 points a game in the 2006-7 season as the Scarlet Knights went on a surprising run to the national title game. She ranks in the top 10 at Rutgers in total points, steals, free-throw percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage.
Paschall, 32, groomed Prince’s offensive game for years. He said he noticed improvements in other parts of her game at Rutgers.
He watched Stringer turn Prince into a lockdown defender and an all-around player who ranked third last season in the Big East in steals (2.6) and scoring (19.5). Prince credited Stringer with “molding me into the player I am today,” and she noted how several of her teammates had achieved W.N.B.A. success.
Prince said the physical style of play overseas would further prepare her for the W.N.B.A. For now, Prince is working out with a trainer in New York and finishing plans for where she will play next season. Her mother worried when she left Brooklyn for New Jersey, but the family plans to have someone accompany her when she moves overseas.
With her earnings, Prince said, she plans to buy her mother a house and support an A.A.U. team in Brooklyn.
Vaccaro noted that Jennings made millions in endorsements last year, and he said Prince could increase her endorsement value while playing overseas.
“Her payoff will come if she’s successful over there and good in the W.N.B.A.,” Vaccaro said. “If that happens, there are no negatives to this.”
2 comments:
How is "African-American Studies" and "Criminal Justice" a double major?
I thought we'd have to inflict some sort of penalty to JD for posting about women's basketball, but then I read your opening and it cleared things right up.
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