It’s not about a single person, it’s about education if a person doesn’t know what to do with 12 1/2 or 50 million dollars, then what? The kids have the opportunity to go to college get a great education play basketball improve their overall life and game so when they get to play pro ball they are ready for it mentally and physically! As one of the other posters mentioned many of the one in dones sit on the bench or end up in the D league….mostly because they have not developed well-rounded skills at their age, because they bypassed a full college experience. Would you rather have 12 1/2 million dollars at 19 and no college degree or go to college four years, get drafted higher, and make $50-$100 million? For a smart person it’s an easy decision!
First, if someone guaranteed you $12.5 million as a 19 year old kid to leave college, don't pretend to tell me you wouldn't jump on it like a dog in heat.
Second, you aren't considering endorsement deals which push that total even higher.
Third, sticking around in college for four years is not a historical advantage to getting drafted higher. NBA teams value youth, upside, potential, and their unabated access to you to develop that potential. Four years later, you are older, harder to break of bad habits, and less malleable. Generally speaking, that is a less attractive profile to an NBA team unless you are someone who came in to college as a relative unknown, and developed into an NBA talent in your four years.
Fourth, the NBA rookie pay structure is no different for a college grad and a one-and-done player, so simply put, by waiting until graduation to declare for the NBA, you've cost yourself three years of earning potential. Keon, at his draft slot, was going to make $12.5 million whether he left now, or waited until he graduated in three years, not the arbitrary $50-$100 million figure you threw out there.
Fifth, so you're probably asking yourself, "Well, what if he improved in college and improved his draft stock?" I'd immediately tell you to see points 3 and 4, above, but let's take it further. What if he gets injured? Draft stock down. What if he gets exposed as just not being an elite talent? Draft stock down. What if he makes a dumb mistake and gets kicked out of school? Draft stock down.
Keon escaped all of those potential pitfalls by jumping early and getting paid. College isn't going anywhere. It will always be available to him. Most of our chosen career paths value experience, education, and development. His chosen profession values just the opposite; youth, availability, and opportunity to develop. You just can't draw a line of correlation between the two and try to make sense of it because they value entirely different key principles.