A smart kid with basketball dreams…
By Mariama Bah
Do you think that basketball players or other kinds of celebrities are intelligent? Usually when we hear words such as “celebrities,” one of the things that comes to mind is that they don’t care about school, and that they probably didn’t even get their high school diploma. However, individuals like NBA player Kevin Wayne Durant, and singer/ television actress Alicia Augello Cook prove that there are actually some very intelligent celebrities and professional sports players.
Kevin Wayne Durant plays for the National Basketball Association’s Oklahoma City Thunder Franchise. He attended the University of Texas, where he participated in one season of college basketball. He went for a degree in education and minored in social work. Kevin GPA as a college freshman was 3.00. He was the first to win both the Robertson and the Adolph F. Rupp awards as a freshman in college. After one year of playing college basketball, he declared himself eligible for the 2007 NBA draft. Kevin started playing basketball when he was little, but that didn’t stop him from going to school and maintaining a good GPA. Kevin didn’t drop out of college because he didn’t care about school; he dropped out because he was a great player that ultimately qualified to be recruited by the NBA.
Alicia Augello Cook is a singer, piano player, and television actress. She began playing piano at the age of seven. She’s become a popular R&B vocalist. She showed a great interest in music ever since she was a child. You might think that because Alicia cared so much for music that she probably didn’t even have time to do her school work, but she successfully graduated as a valedictorian from professional art school. While Alicia was still in high school she had already attracted the attention of record company executives. She was very busy with her music but she still managed to have time to do her school work. In 1998 Alicia “Keys” signed with Arista records and received a full scholarship to Columbia University, but after four months she dropped out to focus more on her music career, which turned out to be a great success.
Alicia Cook and Kevin Durant demonstrate that there are some celebrities and sports stars who really cared about school. Even though they were interested in doing other things they still attended school and maintained a good grade point average. As high school students we all have our non-academic interests, but that doesn’t mean we have to drop out of school. We just have to find the time to do both. A lot of high school students who want to be basketball players, television actresses, etc. say that there is no need for them to go to college. However, it always pays to go to go to college and get that bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or more, because you never know what is going to happen. Also, it just feels good knowing that you have a college degree that will always help you find work in the future just in case your dream of becoming a singer or a basketball star doesn’t come true.
Left college to be a pop star.