Rashard Griffith appears poised to skip his junior and senior years at Wisconsin to participate in the June 28 NBA draft.
The 6-foot-11, 270-pound Griffith withdrew from classes at Wisconsin on April 12. He has been unhappy with the Badgers' style of play. After a 13-14 record last season, Wisconsin fired Stan Van Gundy and hired Dick Bennett as basketball coach.Griffith averaged 17.2 points and 10.8 rebounds for the Badgers his sophomore season. He scheduled a news conference for today.
Griffith led Chicago King High to the state Class AA title in 1993.
Another former Chicago prep star, Kevin Garnett, is making himself available for the draft in hopes of becoming the first player to go directly from high school to the pros in the last 20 years, according to Chicago newspapers.
With a rookie salary cap being discussed by NBA owners, a flood of underclassmen have made themselves available for the draft in recent years.
The 6-11, 217-pound Garnett, who led Farragut High to the city championship in March, was expected to go among the top 20 draftees, his high school coach William Nelson told the Chicago Tribune on Thursday.
"I helped him with the letter that will be sent to the NBA office. There will be a press conference Monday where Kevin will explain everything," Nelson said.
The Tribune reported today that the letter was mailed Thursday. The newspaper did not cite a source for its information. The Chicago Sun-Times also reported today that Garnett would join the draft.
In New York, NBA spokesman Evan Silverman said the league had not received notification from either Garnett or Griffith by Thursday. They have until 11:59 p.m. Sunday to file for the draft.
Nelson said Garnett will retake his ACT college entrance test on June 10.
"He wants to keep all his options open," Nelson said. "All those rumors about his low score are ridiculous. Kevin is very, very close."
Garnett, who has narrowed his college choices to Michigan, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia Tech, has been unable to attain the necessary test score to become academically eligible to play at a Division I school his freshman year.
He has 30 days after the draft to notify the NBA that he wants to go college.
Garnett averaged 26 points, 18 rebounds and six blocks his senior year after transferring from Mauldin, S.C., last summer.
Moses Malone was the first to make the jump from high school to the pros, joining the ABA's Utah Stars in 1974. Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby joined the NBA out of high school in 1975.