Delayed gratification

 Zach Edey surely heard the siren song, though it wasn't that of the ancients. This song more likely came from men bearing satchels of cash than from the women of Homer's Odyssey, although temptation is the thread that connects both.

Points to Edey for resisting. Points to his brain trust, whoever they are, for being both brainy and trustworthy.

Which is to say: He's coming back to West Lafayette for one last rodeo, and that is absolutely the right decision.

He could have easily turned pro (or, in these days of NIL, more pro) by staying in the upcoming NBA draft, because his resume was as stuffed as it seemed likely to get. He was the consensus National Player of the Year at Purdue last winter, and, at 7-4 and north of 300 pounds, the most dominant figure in the college game. 

He averaged 22.9 points, 12.9 rebounds and two-plus blocks a game. Shot a tick under 61 percent. Scored 30 or more points eight times, with 28 double-doubles. Put up 750 points, 400 rebounds, 70 blocks and 50 assists, the first player in NCAA history ever to compile those kind of numbers.

Here's the thing, though: None of that made him ready for the NBA of the 2020s.

That's because he's a '68 Lincoln Continental in a Porsche hybrid world, a low-post, back-to-the-basket throwback to an age that doesn't exist anymore. You want to see the prototype 2020s center, tune in the first game of the NBA Finals tonight. Nikola Jokic will be there, playing up top and down low, popping the occasional three, distributing the basketball. He's still a center, not a point guard, but occasionally he plays the latter on TV.

That's why when Edey tested the waters, he found them lukewarm. Most draftniks projected him as a second-round pick, and not the No. 1 center.

Or the No. 2 center. Or the No. 3 center.

No, Edey was projected as the No. 4 center in the draft, and the 47th pick. That might not have even guaranteed him a roster spot, believe it or not. The guy picked 47th last year, for instance?

That would be Vince Williams Jr. out of Virginia Commonwealth. He averaged 7.0 minutes in 15 games this season for the Memphis Grizzlies. He also averaged 31.1 minutes in 14 games for the Memphis Hustle of the G-League. 

That's not to say the G-League would have been Zach Edey's main residence had he stayed in the draft. But one more year at Purdue -- a team that now has all five starters returning -- certainly is the better alternative.

The Boilermakers will  be a preseason top ten pick, for starters. They'll be an odds-on favorite in the Big Ten after winning both regular season and conference tournament titles last year. And maybe next year they won't get bounced by Fairleigh Dickinson in Da Tournament.

Maybe, too, Edey will develop some 2020s NBA pivot skills. In any event, it will be fascinating to see if that happens, if in 2023-24 he becomes a slightly different version of himself than the 2022-23 model.

As someone surely has said, delayed gratification is the best gratification. And while I don't who it was, I've got a pretty good guess.

A certain M. Painter, I'm thinking.