<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CHAPEL HILL -- The nation's top high school basketball player in the Class of 2006 was hard to miss during the first day of the Bob Gibbons' Tournament of Champions, an AAU event, on Friday night at the Smith Center. See that 7-footer? Yeah, the one with a crowd of folks watching the Spiece Indy Heat on Court No. 3. The one who stepped out of the key and blocked that 18-foot jump shot on the wing? Missed him? Now he's over there in the middle of that crowd of reporters. Yeah, that's Greg Oden. And if the soon-to-be high school senior isn't the No. 1 pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, it may only be because the NBA finally decides that high school players like Oden, the ones with the best potential, are no longer welcome. The top-ranked recruit in the Class of 2006 according to ScoutHoops.com, Rivals.com and Prepstars.com, Oden could be the highest profile high school player kept out if the NBA and the NBA Players Association decide to use a 20-year-old age limit for all NBA draftees starting in 2006. "I don't think about it that much, but if I was to comment I would say I don't think it's right," Oden said Friday after the Heat won its opening game in the popular AAU circuit stop played all over the Triangle. "What if there is a high school player good enough to go to the NBA? He should have that chance."</div> Source
