Since 2005, the NBA has required players entering the league’s draft pool to be at least 19 years old or at least one year removed from high school. However, with commissioner Adam Silver leading the way, the NBA is once again preparing to get involved with elite high school prospects, sources tell ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
According to Windhorst, the league’s plan isn’t simply to revert to the old rules for draft eligibility. Instead, the NBA wants to establish relationships with elite high school prospects early, helping them develop both on and off the court. When those prospects graduate from high school, there would then be a non-NCAA path to earning a salary right away, either from an NBA team or via “an enhanced option” in the G League, sources tell Windhorst. Essentially, the league doesn’t want to open up the draft to 18-year-olds without giving those youngsters more tools to help them succeed.
The plan is still in development, and Silver likely won’t formally put a proposal on the table until after the Commission on College Basketball presents a report this spring, Windhorst writes. Still, with LeBron James, Stan Van Gundy, and former president Barack Obama among the noteworthy voices taking aim recently at the NCAA, the NBA wants to find a way to adjust its one-and-done rules to benefit future NBA players — and the league would like to implement some changes before the current Collective Bargaining Agreement is up in 2024.
“We are looking at changing the relationship we have with players before they reach the NBA,” a high-ranking league official told Windhorst. “This is a complex challenge, and there’s still a lot of discussion about how it’s going to happen, but we all see the need to step in.”
According to Windhorst, there has been some discussion about the idea of establishing basketball academies within the United States to house and train some of the country’s best high school basketball players. However, the NBA prefers not to go that route, instead exploring ways to get in touch with those prospects while they’re playing in high school — that way, the league could bring in experts to teach high-level prospects about “training methods, recovery, nutrition and life skills,” in addition to preparing them for the on-court aspect of the professional game.
Be sure to check out Windhorst’s report in full, as it include more details and quotes on potential routes for the NBA.
So long ncaa.
Thank you Lord
RIP NCAA
LeBron has to be going to the Lakers. He’s standing up for LaVar now. Don’t get excited. The NBA and NCAA aren’t ready to pay high school players yet. Northwestern University football players went to court to try and get paid and lost.
What needs to be discarded is the last year of HS, not the first year of college. College is more valuable than HS regardless of NCAA sports mismanagement.
Call them academies if you want, that Europe puts jocks in, but they’re just vocational schools for dead-end disciplines.
I do believe they should make money off their name, just not Johnny Manziel or Terrell Pryor.
High schools sort of have what this articles are talking about. Prep schools are getting them ready for college, not the pros. Teams like Montverde in Florida (Anfernee Simons), Lalamiere in Indiana (Jaren Jackson and Brian Bowen last season), Oak Hill Acadamemy in Virginia, and others are the best teams in the country with the best players in the country. They are typically the Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, and so on recruits.
When they didn’t have the one and done rules the biggest problem was so many of them never got drafted and they lost their college eligibility.
The G League is better now than it used to be, so they’d be accepting fewer players.
It doesn’t look like you’ll ever see pay for play in college. It would have to be across the board and include all sports and women.
Anyone who has been to college knows tuition isn’t cheap. Most likely the college presidents would raise tuition and room and board to cover expenses. Then you’ll have more students who can’t afford to go to college.
It’s simple. Everyone is allowed to enter the draft. If you get drafted you can choose to go to the NBA. If you don’t like your draft position or don’t get drafted you can go to college. Get rid of this b.s. that you enter the draft you can’t go back. Let them enter the draft each year.
Stephen A just said, do we have anyone working here straight from high school at ESPN. Yes, people mopping the floors in bristol prob didn’t go to college. Like how is that an argument.
They obviously again had this rule before. LeBron used it and is lobbying to get it back. Getting an education is a big deals to Americans. So many can’t afford it. They cost $60,000 and up. I understand some aren’t smart enough to attend college. They are getting an education plus allowing the NBA to see how they do against similar competition. Being away from home allows them to prepare.
The reason they added the one-and-done was because so many weren’t being drafted. When Lew alcindor (kareem Jabbar) played, you had to go for 4 years. Letting them ago back probably isn’t a bad idea, but the timing is right.
To pass this idea with an additional scholarship, you’ll have to talk to Condoleeza Rice. Good luck. She’s one very intelegent lady.
Make that the timing isn’t right. Condoleeza Rice wouldn’t even let Steve Kerr talk to her. She might let LeBron in to get his autograph. This would require a long lengthy process, like the college football playoff committee she chairs.