[4/28/05]

During my senior year of high school, while I was a cub reporter for the Peekskill Herald, I received a letter from The New York Times.

It read: “We believe that you can make the jump straight from the Peekskill Herald to the Times and join our award-winning sports department.”

I was floored. I had written for four years at the Herald and considered myself to have had a standout high school career. But The New York Times?

Was I ready? The Old Gray Lady? The preeminent newspaper of the nation?

The letter continued: “We are certain of your talent and abilities. We know college is high on your list, but we want you. We would like to offer you a base salary of $2.5 million per year, with a chance of earning as much as $3.2 million, depending on how quickly you answer this letter.”

I was stunned. Do you know what that amount of money could do? Mom and dad both worked to support four children. This job would afford me the chance to pay them back.

But was I really ready for this? Was I ready to make the leap from covering Peekskill High lacrosse to the New York Yankees?

Absolutely not. I would be on the road almost every night of the season, living out of hotels and battling with writers older, more experienced and more gifted. The New York Times is a long way from the Herald, I thought, but the money ….

I had been offered a nice scholarship by the University of Southern Mississippi to attend journalism school. In four years, the scholarship would equal somewhere around $40,000.

If I skipped college and went to the Times, I could enroll anywhere during the summer, if I wanted to learn more.

No, I wasn’t ready for the Times. Yes, it would have done me great to go to college, to learn the ropes before being thrown into the fire.

But, finally, no, there is no way I would turn down the money.

That’s not my world, but it is the world of Monta Ellis.

The best basketball player Mississippi has seen in a long time is not NBA ready. He’s a brilliant player with potential to star for years and years, but is not ready for the rigors of the pro game.

How many high schoolers really are, save LeBron James?

But take a kid who lives in a Jackson area where crime and poverty are rampant. Take that kid and offer him a multimillion-dollar contract to play basketball on the highest level, and then ask him to turn it down to take Mississippi State’s offer of free college tuition instead.

Ellis said he will enter the NBA draft. He will hire an agent soon. The notion of him giving up the shot at millions is as ludicrous for him as it would have been – in my comparison – for me