Just think what college basketball would be like today if LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire had gone to college. Or if Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse), T.J Ford (Texas), Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (Georgia Tech) all decided to stay all four years in college instead of leaving early for the NBA.

I would be sick right now. I'm talking 14th century, Black Plague sick.

Stoudemire could have been a sophomore at Memphis and James, who knows, maybe Kentucky, Duke or Sacred Heart for all he knew. He could have gone to any Division I school in the country and turned the program into a championship contender. Bosh and 'Melo would be sophomores, Ford a junior and Wade a senior. If these players wanted to stay or even go to college, Emeka Okafor would look like the ninth guy off the bench. Jameer Nelson can hold his own, so I won't get on his case.

There is some debate surrounding the issue of high school players jumping straight to the NBA or leaving college after one or two seasons for the pros and some approve of this, while some do not.

I've never heard or read any good reasons why players should not leave college early or leap into the NBA from high school other than they're too young, so let's examine the upside to going to the league early.

Millions of dollars.

That's it.

I mean, some people say they need to "develop their game" but when you can play better than half of the pros, you don't need to develop. The major reason people don't look at is that most of these young stars are coming from a bad neighborhood and they want to get out and live the lavish life. Look at Francisco Garcia at Louisville, for example. In December of last year, the all-Conference USA forward discovered his younger brother was murdered in his neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. High school phenomenon and also Brooklyn native, Sebastian Telfair — who will take his talents to Louisville — lost his best friend to street violence just before the McDonalds All-American High School game. On April 1, his older brother was charged with murder after allegedly shooting a rival marijuana dealer.

Can you imagine trying to deal with that and still be able to focus on basketball? Your friends and family are urging you to go pro to make those millions, not to mention the media and the entire nation. It's enough to drive a teenager insane but the only hope is making it rich as an NBA star. The thought of eliminating all your family's problems, buying a mansion and owning 15 new cars sounds better than struggling financially, sharing a two-bedroom apartment on a campus somewhere and taking 15 credits.

You be the judge.