Do the student-athletes graduating this spring after playing in any of the 351 Division 1 basketball programs have a better chance finding employment in a job related to their major or on a professional basketball team?There are only about 48 job openings in the NBA each year for almost 1,000 students who finish playing Division 1 basketball. Bo McCalebb (pictured driving past Russia's Andrei Kirilenko) may be the best of 5,404 former players for American colleges drawing a paycheck in a foreign pro league--as he went from being one of the top 50 Value Add college players to earning $2 million a year in Macedonia (ranked just 38th on the Top 100 pro basketball destinations on the table below).
Many top players can earn six figures playing in France, Spain, Turkey or other top leagues, or take closer to $20,000 to stay in the D-League and have a better chance to get a quick call-up for an injured NBA player. If every D1 player wanted to continue as a pro, it is likely about half of them could land a job in one of the countries listed below.
This means players could actually have a better employment rate as players in the year after graduation than as job seekers in their major. The Atlantic reported two years ago that 53 percent of first year college grads could not get a job in their major (see Atlantic article here). D1 players also do not leave college with the debt of the average college grad--which is $35,000 according to CNN.
The following table ranks destinations for college players who want to go pro based on five factors; 1) the level of pro play in the country, 2) how many Americans earn pay checks in pro leagues there according to US Basketball database here, 3) how many players NET $1 million or more playing in that country, 4) the country's FIBA ranking, and finally 5) how well players from that country performed in the NBA this year based on the Breitbart Sports valuation of players outlined in this post. A more detailed explanation appears below the ranking of the top 100 pro basketball destinations.
Pro Rnk Country Level of Pro Leagues American pros there Players net $1m FIBA rnk (1st=100) NBA Players Total
1 NBA/USA 100 100 277 100 8196 500
2 Spain 95 179 8 99 77 411
3 Turkey 76 97 10 94 53 370
4 Italy 60 195 7 80 57 332
5 France 48 250 93 90 331
6 D-League/USA 80 180 1 50 95 330
7 Russia 90 5 15 95 60 325
8 Greece 70 72 5 96 15 278
9 Germany 44 600 1 87 38 274
10 Brazil 20 65 91 85 261
11 Israel 57 167 64 221
12 Lithuania 48 37 97 36 218
13 Australian 25 241 92 217
14 Angola 10 102 86 196
15 Argentina 31 98 66 195
16 Puerto Rico 10 105 84 194
17 Great Britain 10 153 79 189
18 Mexico 10 282 77 187
19 Canada 10 238 76 186
20 Japan 10 192 66 176
21 Venezuela 9 90 73 172
22 Finland 10 124 62 172
23 Slovenia 15 12 88 49 164
24 China 29 42 89 160
25 South Korea 8 79 69 156
26 Dominican Republic 7 71 75 153
27 Uruguay 7 72 74 153
28 Philippines 25 61 67 153
29 Serbia 26 7 90 25 148
30 Czech Republic 38 36 52 17 143
31 Ukraine 29 40 56 15 140
32 Poland 7 65 61 133
33 New Zealand 5 45 82 132
34 Belgium 7 74 51 132
35 Lebanon 5 48 72 125
36 Sweden 15 53 37 18 123
37 Portugal 6 63 50 119
38 Macedonia 15 18 1 68 16 117
39 Qatar 5 48 59 112
40 Croatia 1 11 85 97
41 Bosnia and Herzegovina 15 11 43 27 96
42 Tunisia 1 14 78 93
43 Iran 1 10 81 92
44 Columbia 9 80 89
45 Luxenbourg 8 79 87
46 Congo 15 24 42 86
47 Nigeria 2 83 85
48 Latvia 2 19 63 84
49 Bulgaria 3 28 53 84
50 Georgia (Europe) 15 9 48 8 80
51 Jordan 1 7 71 79
52 Ivory Coast 1 65 78
53 Switzerland 7 71 78
54 Morocco 3 32 42 77
55 Montenegro 15 9 26 25 75
56 Iceland 7 68 75
57 Romania 7 65 72
58 Panama 70 70
59 Egypt 1 10 55 66
60 Kazakhstan 2 15 49 66
61 Senegal 60 60
62 Taiwan 3 57 60
63 Holland 5 54 59
64 Cameroon 58 58
65 Denmark 5 53 58
66 Kuwait 2 24 31 57
67 Cyprus 5 52 57
68 Kosovo 5 51 56
69 Paraguay 54 54
70 Saudi Arabia 3 25 25 53
71 Hungary 5 46 51
72 Slovakia 5 45 50
73 Cape Verde 47 47
74 Central African Republic 46 46
75 United Arab Emiratess 1 9 36 46
76 Bahrain 2 16 28 46
77 Jamaica 45 45
78 Cuba 44 44
79 Libya 2 18 23 43
80 Chile 4 39 43
81 Virgin Islands 41 41
82 Rwanda 3 38 41
83 India 40 40
84 Malaysia 1 9 30 40
85 Mali 39 39
86 Mozambique 2 35 37
87 Indonesia 3 33 36
88 Syria 1 34 35
89 Algeria 1 11 21 33
90 Hong Kong 32 32
91 Uzbekistan 29 29
92 South Africa 27 27
93 Norway 2 24 26
94 Estonia 2 21 23
95 Thailand 22 22
96 Madagascar 20 20
97 Costa Rica 2 18 20
98 Sri Lanka 19 19
99 Chad 18 18
100 Peru 2 16 18
Key to rankings:
1) Level of Pro Leagues--Breitbart Sports rated the level of play of pro leagues in different countries, led by Spain ("95") and Russia ("90").
2) American pros there--Next we gave each country (and the D-League) a point for each American player currently on contract with a cap of 100 points (e.g. 179 former players from American colleges now play in Spain which gives them 100 points in our rankings).
3) While 277 NBA players net $1 million a year after taxes, so do 15 players for Russian pro teams and 10 for pro teams in Turkey. We give each country five points for each player who makes $1 million net.
4) We then gave teams up to 100 points (NBA/USA) for being 1st in the FIBA rankings, 99 for second (Spain), etc.
5) Finally, we gave each country a point for how well each player from their country played in the NBA this season based on a value put on all 492 NBA players by Breitbart Sports in this post.
Each of these five categories gives a country (and the D-League) up to 100 points, thus grading them against the NBA's perfect 500 rating. Reported by Breitbart 9 hours ago.