Latest On NBA’s Efforts To Adjust One-And-Done Rules

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.

View Comments (10)