NBA Stars Back to School — Actual Classrooms — During Lockout at LinesMaker

NBA Stars Back to School — Actual Classrooms — During Lockout

While many of his col­leagues don’t bother set­ting an alarm and are busy gal­li­vant­ing across the coun­try, top over­all pick Kyrie Irv­ing walks across the Duke Uni­ver­sity cam­pus shut­tling between his African Amer­i­can stud­ies and psy­chol­ogy classes.

“It’s def­i­nitely the one pos­i­tive of the [NBA] lock­out,” said Irv­ing, who was cho­sen first over­all this past June after spend­ing only one year at Duke. “It’s only going to help me later in life.”

Refresh­ing.

Irv­ing isn’t alone, either.

At least two other guys who shook David Stern’s hand this past June are also tak­ing a full, four-class course load in the fall semes­ter while the NBA lock­out con­tin­ues: Irving’s future team­mate with the Cleve­land Cavs, Tris­tan Thomp­son, and Mil­wau­kee Bucks first-rounder Tobias Harris.

For­mer UCLA star Kevin Love, an NBA All-Star who led the league in rebound­ing also made in excess of $ 4 mil­lion this past sea­son, is also tak­ing classes. The Min­nesota Tim­ber­wolves star is three years removed from leav­ing school early for the NBA.

Pretty cool.

“My main goal has always to have a backup plan once I’m done play­ing,” said Har­ris, who decided to leave Ten­nessee after just one sea­son in col­lege and was taken 19th over­all. “You need a col­lege degree for that.”

Irv­ing, Thomp­son and Har­ris are each tak­ing four classes. Not new age school­work, either, which seems to be occur­ring more and more in the online environment.

In an actual classroom.

Irving’s has a pair of psy­chol­ogy classes, an African Amer­i­can stud­ies class and also one in theater.

“It’s much eas­ier now than it was last year, because I have so much free time now,” said Irv­ing, who had a 3.0 GPA after his fresh­man year.

Love is tak­ing a pair: Soci­ol­ogy 1 and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies 132.

Soci­ol­ogy begins at 8 a.m. on Tues­days and Thurs­days while his com­mu­ni­ca­tions class goes from 9:30 to 10:45 on Tuesdays.

“It’s been com­pletely nat­ural for me to go back to school,” Love said. “It was always my inten­tion, but frankly, I was work­ing so hard every off­sea­son that I just didn’t have time. But at no time did I ever think I wouldn’t get my degree.”

There are plenty of other NBA play­ers who are also work­ing toward their degree dur­ing the lock­out — a list that includes UCLA’s Rus­sell West­brook and VCU’s Larry Sanders. How­ever, the dif­fer­ence with this group is that they only have one year invested in college.

That’s a long haul to go to earn their degree.

Many peo­ple think they are nuts for return­ing to school.

“I’ve heard that,” said Thomp­son, a Cana­dian who was selected fourth over­all by the Cavs. “Peo­ple are in shock when they see me in class or I tell them I’m in school, but bas­ket­ball doesn’t last forever.”

Har­ris added, “I feel good about it. I was going to get it even­tu­ally, so why not do it now while I’m still young?”

It’s not as if these guys aren’t still work­ing on their games while they go to school. Love still plays pickup with many of the pros in the area and also works with trainer Rob McClanaghan. Irv­ing works out with a Duke trainer and Thomp­son, who is also a stu­dent assis­tant coach, is able to work out in Texas.

“I’m in Austin, Texas,” Thomp­son said. “One of the great­est cities.”

There are count­less NBA play­ers who are spend­ing their time at their alma maters, but the major­ity are just there to reap the ben­e­fits of work­ing out with other alums — and using the facil­i­ties in place.

What sets these guys apart is they didn’t dread col­lege — and in par­tic­u­lar the aca­d­e­mic component.

“I really loved my year at UCLA,” Love added. “I embraced every part of col­lege life — except for the dorms. … I was never much of a home­work guy, but loved the class­room expe­ri­ence and inter­ac­tion. UCLA and the cam­pus is a spe­cial place for me, ever since I first set foot here the sum­mer before my fresh­man year in high school.”

Irv­ing added, “I don’t mind going to school. It’s not like I left school because I hated it. I just had an opportunity.”

Now he’s tak­ing advan­tage of another one.

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• Power Rank­ings: Pan­thers Are Back in Business
• Chris Paul to Lak­ers Deal Back From the Dead. Maybe. but Modified.
• Jets to Wel­come Back Antropov, Jones

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