James Tyler, Father of Europe-bound High School Baller, Talks Maturity
April 24, 2009 – 8:30 am by Will BrinsonJeremy Tyler made huge headlines recently when he announced that he was leaving high school to turn pro — he’s heading to Europe to play professional basketball for two years before coming back to America and entering the NBA Draft.
He’s doing this, obviously, because the NBA won’t let him go pro now. And his dad James Tyler was interviewed on KTAR in Phoenix to talk about his emotional maturity, the reasons for his jump and missing proms (for whatever reason, people always seem to ask about prom when it comes to losing memories of high school — as if stealing golf carts at the local country club to pound bricks isn’t obviously way more fun).
On being emotionally ready to turn pro at such a young age:
“We kind of covered all that as a family. We sat down and talked about it. The funny thing is he has a cousin that just left at 18 and went over there, he’s in the Marines right now, he’s in San Diego. We thought the same thing about him, but he’s doing great. He’s a tank operator, he’s doing great. And we sort of referred that back to Jeremy. When you sign on the dotted line, he becomes a man, and there’s no ifs, ands, buts about it, you’re going to have to deal with it. And the same thing happened with his cousin.”
On growing up too fast and missing hanging out with friends, proms, etc.:
“The first thing about that, bringing up the prom, Jeremy’s been to 8 proms. He’s a good looking guy and every senior girl wanted him to go to the prom with her, so I told him, “I’m not paying for another tux.” I think he’s done more than enough and Jeremy’s friend is that basketball, he loves it so much and he loves to be so competitive. Some people, they took his competitiveness out as being temperamental, and he’s so competitive to where he’s so passionate, he’s driven like his life depends on it. I couldn’t take that from him.”
Is he doing this to take care of his family?
“Oh no. We haven’t even discussed financial stuff with any of the teams or anything. This is all just for Jeremy to get better. If you see him, and you see his workouts, you’ll clearly understand what we’re doing this for. He will not get anything out of another year of high school and then just that six months of college, he wouldn’t really get the stuff that he’ll get if he does a two year tour there. You know, he’s not really out of high school yet. Until he graduates through Penn Foster he’s not graduated. He’s still in high school, he’s just going to be a working high school student.
Listen to James Tyler on KTAR in Phoenix with Gambo and Ash
Tags: European Basketball, High School Basketball, James Tyler, Jeremy Tyler, NBA, NBA Draft
