Remember Jeremy Tyler?

The 6'11'' prospect that skipped his senior year of high school and spurned the Cards to play professional ball in Israel? Yea, things aren't going so well for him. The New York Times has a sadly fascinating piece on the talented but naive prospect. His teammates are, by and large, Israeli-men just finishing their mandatory 3 year stint in the army, and let's just say there's a bit of a culture clash between them and the egocentric Tyler. Described by his coaches as lazy and combative, athletic but hopelessly unskilled (his Haifa coach was shocked to discover Tyler lacked basics like the ability to box out or rotate on defense), Tyler seems to be the last one to recognize that his dream of "shaking David Stern's hand" and retiring with a 200 million dollar bank account is slipping away. It's also an indictment of the "mogul culture" coveted by many young athletes, where being a good basketball player is no longer enough. Tyler is exploring a future in modeling, is the subject of a documentary on his life, and speaks how he and girlfriend Erin Wright (daughter of the late rapper Easy E) will be America's next power couple, akin to Jay-Z and Beyonce. For now though, he's sitting alone (plans for his brother to move to Israel never materialized) in his sparse Haifa apartment (he expected more lavish furnishings) playing his music (too loudly, the neighbors have had to call the police three times in complaint) and not getting better at basketball (told his coaches they don't know anything about the game). A fascinating look at a player that was almost a Cardinal. From this account it certainly sounds like he should have been.