Gary Parrish

AKRON, Ohio -- Here's Wednesday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: GREAT column about LeBron and CP3. I'm sure they gave 100 percent playing these kids. Yes, they went all out. They are terrible together. Why do you have a job?

-- Tim

I have a job because my wife does not.

That's the simplest answer I can give you.

As for LeBron James and Chris Paul, all I can tell you is that I was in the gym watching, and they were absolutely going as hard as they could go in these pick-up games against the college players attending the LeBron James Skills Academy. In fairness, they only played to six by ones. So a couple of missed shots can cost you a win. But there's not a person who was in the gym who would tell you James and Paul weren't playing hard, and it got so competitive at one point that James was actually yelling at an official, totally pissed about how things were going.

I know Michael Jordan's competive fire is legendary.

And I'm not sure how it compares to LeBron's.

But with my own eyes I have never seen anybody so hyped for a pick-up game as LeBron seems to be everytime I see him in a pick-up game. The guy can't stand losing. It's really a joy to watch, and hopefully that kind of approach rubbed off on the college players who got to see the best player in the world take everything he did seriously .. even while he was losing three of seven games to them.

Speaking LeBron, he spent Tuesday being just as involved as ever at the camp.

He watched the high school players compete in the late afternoon/early evening, then took the college players bowling. Also interesting, word around the camp is that LeBron is now up to 6-foot-8, 268 pounds with two percent body fat, and it really is something to see. The guy looks like he was built by a machine, just a complete freak of nature that amazes even the people who watched him grow up.

"I never thought he could get bigger," said Akron coach Keith Dambrot, who coached James in high school. "But when I saw him the other day I couldn't believe it. He's bigger and stronger than he's ever been. He told me he was 'Iron Man.'"

AKRON, Ohio -- One done, how many more to go?

That's the real question surrounding Brandon Jennings' announcement that he will spend the next year in Europe as a professional while waiting for the 2009 NBA Draft. Forget what it means to Arizona or Lute Olson. What it means to college basketball in general is what has the industry buzzing, because coaches will now have to approach the recruitment of elite prospects like they used to approach the recruitment of elite prospects, which is to say with great caution and the understanding that there's a decent chance they'll never enroll.

"By his sophomore year, nobody was recruiting LeBron anymore because everybody knew he wasn't going to college," were some of the words Akron coach Keith Dambrot shared Tuesday night at the LeBron James Skills Academy while we chatted about the superstar he once coached in high school. By the end of the night, I couldn't help but think this is the way coaches will again be approaching situations because they won't want to waste time on a prospect chasing the dollar.

And by dollar, I mean euro.

In that way, Jennings is very much going to be the trendsetter Sonny Vaccaro wanted, and anybody actively recruiting Class of 2009 stars Renardo Sidney and Lance Stephenson had better reevaluate things, ASAP. Because on Tuesday night Jennings officially opened the door the NCAA and NBA hoped would never open, and now there's no telling how many prospects are going to try to follow his lead.