From RI to Worcester to Lithuania, Baron Faces Uphill Battle to NBA Dream
Friday, July 25, 2014
Jack Andrade, GoLocal Sports Reporter
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| Billy Baron speaking to campers at Hendricken |
Baron won 3 state championships with the Hawks in his 3 years on the varsity team. A self-motivated gym rat, Baron told a gym full of youngsters that the best thing that ever happened to him was getting placed on the JV team as a freshman.
After a season at Worcester Academy prepping for the college game, Baron accepted a scholarship from the University of Virginia.
Tumultuous College Start
Baron’s college experience got off to a rocky start, with multiple transfers, his father being fired as the head coach at URI, and Baron feeling “embarrassed in myself for not achieving the goals I set for myself.”
Everything clicked at Canisius over his final 2 seasons, where Baron starred for his father’s new team and put himself back on the NBA map. He wasn’t drafted in June, however, and he didn’t get an NBA contract after a decent showing with the Chicago Bulls summer league team.
Now, it’s back to square one
Heading to Europe.
Baron signed a 1-year deal with the Lithuanian club Lietuvos Rytas, the 4th ranked European team in the world at the moment. He’s the first American rookie to sign with Lithuania’s top club, and Lietuvos Rytas plays in front of 11,000 fans regularly.
It’s not the big leagues, but it’s still a long way from Bishop Hendricken, Worcester Academy, and even Canisius College.
There are reasons to be optimistic. Lietuvos Rytas has sent 3 players to the NBA before: Darius Songaila, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Jonas Valanciunas, the #5 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and a staple of the current Toronto Raptors.
The odds aren’t in Baron’s favor, however. Hundreds of American players leave college and go play overseas. Very few of them return to the States and make NBA rosters.
An SB Nation study found that the success rate of 2nd round picks going over to Europe before returning to the U.S. was 33%. From 2002-2012, 27 American players drafted in the second round went overseas, and only 9 wound up making an NBA team in the future.
Consider that Baron wasn’t drafted (so no team owns his rights) and that gives him a wider NBA net to cast. Instead of knowing which team he has to make, he is available to all 30 NBA franchises. But then odds of a 4-year college player going undrafted and then playing in Europe before jumping back to the NBA are very slim. Baron’s odds statistically are almost certainly under the 33% chance a 2nd round “draft and stash” player has.
Familiar Territory
Baron is no stranger to moving around, as evidence by his college path. He spoke at length to campers at Hendricken about the importance of facing adversity and overcoming long odds to reach his biggest goals in basketball.
There’s no question Baron has the work ethic and the desire to be an NBA player. That said, there are only 450 spots in the league, and no one’s chances of cracking that 450 get any better as they get older.
So Billy Baron faces an uphill battle to reach his ultimate goal of playing in the NBA. He doesn’t need to look far, however, to realize the NBA isn’t the be-all-end-all. His brother Jimmy, who starred at URI for 4 seasons in the late 2000’s- has enjoyed a nice 5-year career thus far across the pond.
There’s no shame in playing pro ball in Europe, and it pays a lot better than the NBA Developmental League. Baron has overcome the odds before in his basketball career, and Gomes told campers he thought Baron would be successful in anything in life, basketball or otherwise, because of his mental toughness and work ethic.
The next chapter in the Billy Baron story begins in a few weeks when he sets off for Lithuania to begin preparing for the upcoming season. Whether there’s an NBA chapter in his life story or not, his road from Rhode Island to Worcester to European pro basketball has prepared him for the best and worst case scenarios.
