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"FacebookPinterest\n\nThis year the wars came early. It usually takes until March, when the entire country is seized by NCAA Tournament spasms. NBA loyalists like myself can usually put off grousing until then. Besides, we've got our own start of the season to worry about. This year is different. This is the year of Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins.\n\nWhen Duke and Kansas met in the Champions Classic last week, the entire sport stood still. The two most eagerly anticipated freshmen in years; two players grappling to be this summer's top pick in the NBA Draft; two putative franchise saviors, both of whom have already been branded \"the Next LeBron James;\" two multi-skilled, exotic, possibly transcendent wings who defy position and herald the new basketball universe yet to fully arrive. Oh, and it was a match-up between two of country's most storied college programs. There was that, too.\n\nThe last time we saw anything like Wiggins-Parker, it was 2007, when Kevin Durant stormed through amateur competition and Greg Oden, injured and embedded in a deep, inflexible Ohio State team, teased us with glimpses of dominance. Durant-Oden is its own ill-fated binary. But during their brief time in the college ranks, they might as well have been playing out different scripts. Durant lit into opposing teams as if he knew how much better he was, how easily he could impose himself on this theater of sub-par play. KD was a rupture, a shock to the system. He made college ball watchable for NBA fans because he seemed intent on making a mockery of it. Oden, on the other hand, was a superstar-in-waiting. Watching him was scouting, estimating, guessing, not a chance to see NCAA ball turned inside out.\n\nBased on early returns from Wiggins and Parker, we're looking at a couple of baby KDs. Parker is smooth, fully-realized, enormous, and just more than other college kids. The comparison made most is to Carmelo Anthony's year at Syracuse, except Parker has stronger perimeter skills and erts more of a presence in the paint. Parker's size and his all-around ease on the court breathe new life into the \"men among boys\" clich\u00E9. Grant Hill's name has often been invoked, though maybe that's because Duke has rarely allowed this kind of player to take over its program like this. Kyrie Irving and Jay Williams were guards who could dominate while keeping the great institutional beast fed. Parker is a nice kid with impeccable manners. He probably doesn't want to overshadow his teammates, much less Coach K and Cameron, but he will.\n\nWiggins doesn't project the same kind of authority, yet in isolated instances, he's arguably even more impressive. When Wiggins goes to the basket, you don't just see high-level speed and athleticism on display. The way he makes minute changes in direction without slowing down is breathtaking; his ability to speed up and slow down at unexpected times is dimension-warping; and yes, in the air, above the rim, Wiggins has the body control and awareness of the basket that makes \"highlight\" a tautology. Given the wide-open inventiveness of his game, it's interesting that Wiggins chose Kansas over, say, a pro talent farm like Kentucky. It almost comes across as Oden-ing himself, eschewing the showcase in favor of college legitimacy (it's also worth noting that Wiggins, like LeBron, has been accused of lacking a certain morbid intensity). Except Wiggins can't help but turn heads and make jaws drop. Parker is unavoidable in every Duke possession; in the second half, the threat of a big Wiggins play was enough to keep you dizzy and unsettled.\n\nThe final score was almost an afterthought. Kansas won, though Parker had fouled out, making it a gross injustice and minor national tragedy that prompted Dick Vitale to demand a rule change because \"these people pay good money to see Parker play.\" Unquestionably, the focus was on the stars. Not on Coach K and Bill Self. Not on Kansas and Duke. Not on their wild and crazy fans, though admittedly the game was played on neutral terrain. Wiggins and Parker were the story, the show, the big idea, and the source of any and all viewing pleasure surrounding that game. The night belonged to the stars, not everyone else. It was a hierarchy familiar to NBA fans and one often reviled by college purists.\n\nBefore the game, NBA Twitter was searching its soul over an important question: Would Wiggins and Parker be enough to make us watch college basketball this year? That's the wrong way to put it on nearly every level. Wiggins and Parker can only make us watch Wiggins and Parker (and maybe Julius Randle, the overshadowed third member of this 2014 Triumverate). What's more, when we watch them, we're not holding our noses or selectively tuning in and out. That would be watching Kansas and Duke for the two stars, or watching only those two stars in action. The way Parker and Wiggins play is so infectious, so discernible throughout the entire game, that the entire structure of college ball is suspended. All the unpardonable sins of the NCAA\u2014forcing players to do a year of service, not paying them, treating world-class basketball players like wards of the state\u2014stand out in sharp relief. When we watch Wiggins and Parker, we're not watching college basketball. We're watching the most pointed critique of it possible. We're watching the NBA.\n\nIf Wiggins and Parker will drive college basketball this season, college basketball isn't going to be itself. College basketball hasn't \"won\" because NBA fans are talking about it and tuning into a few games here and there. If anything, that's proof that 2013-14 is going to be one of those rare times when the old battle lines make less sense than ever. Because really, everyone's flocking over to the NBA side. Whether they realize it or not.  \u00C2"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/andrew-wiggins-jabari-parker-so-good-even-nba-snobs-cant-ignore-them>