Making it, becoming a professional athlete, is probably the dream of every young kid at one point or another during the early days. Millions go on to become High School athletes, but the chances of actually making it from there to the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS is ridiculously low.
From over half a million high school basketball players, only 17,000 go on to play in the NCAA, just over 3%. Out of the 17k, only 48 will turn pro. Meaning only 0.03% of high school athletes will get to play in the NBA. Luckily for a lot of college players, there are enough basketball jobs around the world the occupy.
Over 1.1 million teenagers play high school football. Out of them, only 255 will make the NFL, 0.08%. American Football doesn’t offer a lot of job possibilities outside North America except for a few teams in Europe during the summer months.
Baseball, with an 0.6% success rate in turning high-schoolers and Men’s Ice Hockey with a 0.1% success rate, two sports that actually don’t choose too many collegiate players, are relatively “easier” to get involved with at the pro level.
A lesson to be learned? The chances of becoming the next LeBron James, Kevin Garnett or Kobe Bryant are between non-existent and super-slim.
