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Point of no return Likely top-five pick Swift leaves LSU for good
Posted: Thursday June 22, 2000 01:06 AM
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- LSU's Stromile Swift will forgo his junior year in college and make himself eligible for the June 28 NBA Draft. "This decision was a difficult one because of the experience I had at LSU. The opportunity in the NBA is great and I feel this is the best time to take it," Swift said at a news conference Wednesday. From information he gathered, Swift said, he expects to be among the top five picks in the draft. The top five selections go to New Jersey, Vancouver, the Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago and Orlando. Swift averaged 16.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and nearly three blocks per game as a forward last season. He helped lead LSU to a share of the Southeastern Conference regular season title and the third round of the NCAA tournament. Swift said earlier this year that he loves LSU and wanted to stay for at least one more year to work on improving his game. But when he applied to enter his name in the draft, Swift said he felt he should find out what teams might draft him and in what spot before making the decision to stay or go. Swift entered his name in the draft in May, but did not retain an agent, allowing him to keep his amateur status and collegiate eligibility while giving him time to gather more accurate information about where he would likely be selected in the draft. He faced a midnight Wednesday deadline for making his decision. LSU coach John Brady said Swift he had heard media speculation that Swift was leaving because of academic problems. That is not true, Brady said. "He had an excellent semester at school," Brady said. Brady added that Swift and his mother approached his possible move to the NBA wisely. "I applaud him and his mother for how they've gone about this process of gathering information and knowledge," Brady said.
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