Never a good sign when you start a debate by being defensive.  How parents, who actually care for their children and not their potential worth, can trust a slimy guy like Sonny is beyond me.

With that said, I actually side with Sonny in allowing players to drop out of high school and pursue a professional career.  True elite players are more than capable of making the jump to the pros.  Before the 1-year rule came into effect, the success rate of high school players making it in the NBA was very high. People of course say, "Oh but you're just thinking about LeBron James; what about all the players that didn't make it?"  To that I ask, "Which players?"  Yeah, of course you have your Korleone Young's, but there were a LOT more success stories (i.e. players that stuck in the NBA) than not.

As for Todd Boyd's argument of developing as a person, I personally believe there is a lot more growth opportunity as a person playing pro-ball in Europe than your Senior year in HS + 1st year in college. College is a great place to grow into an adult if you are a normal kid, but these elite athletes 1) rarely stay in school beyond 2 years and 2) are put on a pedestal from day one and treated like kings. Is that the valuable "developing" experience than Professor Boyd is talking about?

Marcos Bretton makes a good point about agents inevitably taking advantage of kids, but just like Korleone's story provided a nice reality check to HS players, the first kid to jump to Europe and fail miserably will do the same; even the teams that will likely try to recruit as many U.S. players as possible will temper their enthusiasm.  It'll naturally calibrate itself.