Tar Heel Wife watches the Howie Mandel resurrection vehicle "Deal or No Deal" on NBC where people go through the process of opening up cases which hold dollar amounts ranging from $1 million to $1. At the beginning of the show they choose one case to hold onto and then open the rest with every one they open, the dollar amount revealed comes off the board. At certain points a "banker" offers them some amount of money to walk away. So if $1 million is still on the board and the odds are good they might have that case, the banker will offer them a high amount of money to walk away. Sometimes they decide to go for it, turn down $250,000 and open another case which ends up being the $1 million case and so the banker then offers them $40,000 instead because the highest number left on the board is $80,000.
This is basically what Brandan Wright is looking at. According to Hoops Hype if Wright is taken #3 we would make $2.9 million in his first season. The #1 pick, presumably Greg Oden, would make $3.6 million and Keven Durant at #2 would make $3.2 million. So Wright can take the bankers offer of $2.9 million now or wait to open the case next year. If he bolts goes #1 or #2 he gets more money but if he gets hurt or has a bad year for whatever reason he could go down and have to take less money. The difference between where he is likely to go now and the highest he could go next season is $700,000. Financially speaking that does not seem like enough to risk being injured or have his stock drop for some reason.
In my opinion this decision will come down a choice between the financial security and all of the family pressures which may be involved in that or the intangibles of college. If Wright wants to go once more into the breach of a college basketball season to play on the biggest stage with a serious shot at winning the national championshup then he will come back and enter the draft a year from now which much the same stock as his he now and a championship ring. Yes there is a risk of injury and that is really the only risk. I do not see his stock going down during the next season which means it comes down to whether Wright wants the money or the title.
Hat tip: ACC Now