Jeremy Richmond To Play Pro Ball
This will be good for Jereme. He really has a lot of up-side to his game and I hope he realized that leaving college was the worst mistake he could have made, especially playing on a basketball scholarship at a top Division I college like Illinois.
Richmond has the potential, skillset, and tools to be a very good player for an NBA team but his skills are overshawdowed by his poor decision-making, selfishness, and immaturity. I watched him his freshman season, and he did quite well for the Fighting Illini, and performed well enough to start over senior forward Bill Cole, although for whatever reason Bruce Weber thought that experienced players who weren't good would perform better than young players who can play.
Back to Jereme, I will be following his career overseas closely and hopefully he will get his act together and maybe one day make it to the NBA.
Good luck, Jereme.
^^^ On January 23, 2012, Richmond was sentenced to 18 months probation, ordered to pay a $500 fine and court costs, and completion of 200 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to unlawful use of a weapon. The other charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement.[11]
Nobody told him to "come out" of Illinois early. He of all people knew he needed some tuning added to his game to even think about having a shot at the NBA. He came out because he had previously had problems with the Illinois coaching staff, and he had become academically ineligible and he did not want to transfer to a new school and sit out for an entire year so he himself decided to declare himself eligible for the NBA draft.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/ncb/story/_/id/7603977/former-illinois-basket...