In 2005, the NBA and its players' association agreed on new draft rules stating that, beginning in 2006, U.S. players would have to be at least one year out of high school to declare for the NBA Draft.
This new agreement is what has given us the opportunity to watch players like Kevin Durant and Greg Oden in the college ranks this season. Before this year, uber-talented high school players like Durant and Oden would likely have forgone their college eligibility and declared for the NBA Draft.
In 2005, 11 high school players declared themselves eligible for the draft. Eight were selected.
If those players were facing the same decision today, each would be ineligible for the draft and very likely play at least one year of college basketball.
Although changes in draft eligibility were warranted, this requirement may fundamentally alter the face of college basketball and the dynamic of the interaction between college-level and NBA play.
The most obvious result of the new rule is that the full spectrum of American high school basketball talent will spend at least one year on a college campus.
If you had asked me last fall about teams like Texas, Georgetown, Ohio State and North Carolina, I would have told you that there would be problems with team chemistry as each attempted to integrate freshmen into their playing rotation. In the last six months, the success of each of these teams proved that trouble with chemistry is not necessarily an automatic consequence of such integration. On the micro-level, we saw very few problems.
But on the macro-level, the futures of these freshmen will set the tone for the future of college basketball, at least amongst the powerhouse programs.
If freshmen leave in big numbers for the NBA, then college basketball risks becoming another developmental extension of the Association, trivializing an essential part of college athletics. If college is simply a temporary stopping ground, then the efforts of many to encourage high graduation rates amongst basketball players will be undermined. Given, many of the powerhouse schools that stand to lose talented freshmen already have poor graduation rates, but that problem could quickly become a serious crisis if talented players consistently leave campus after just one year.
If you're leaving either way, what reason is there to even go to class?
I'll concede that an undermined college athletic experience is just a possible result of the "high school plus one" NBA draft requirement. Some will leave and some -- maybe even Greg Oden -- will stay on campus. We'll just have to wait and see exactly what happens.
But do you know who will be begging these talented athletes to leave and potentially spurring this crisis?
The executives of the National Basketball Association.
A sure-fire result of the new draft eligibility rule is increased meddling in college basketball by the NBA, unless much stronger penalties are implemented.
We've already started to see it.
During the Big-12 tournament, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge sat next to Durant's mother, an action that resulted in a justified but measly $30,000 fine. Recent comments by Bobcats executive Michael Jordan and Warriors coach Don Nelson also resulted in a total of $30,000 in fines for public comments about Durant and Oden.
Unless penalties for this type of action are very strong, contact between the NBA and college players before a draft declaration will only increase. And if there is not a resolute deterrent for NBA teams to keep to themselves, then the goals and special nature of college basketball will be fundamentally changed.
If NBA general managers are already sitting next to mothers of players during games in which their sons are playing, imagine what is happening behind closed doors? Imagine what could happen in the future?
We may not be able to keep talented freshmen on campus for more than one year, but we can and should control the intrusive actions of NBA teams, which are competing for players that they used to be able to lure right out of high school.
Unfortunately, it is the NBA who will be responsible for controlling itself.
The new draft requirement was a surprising step by the NBA to set limits for itself, but the association must go a step further and collectively hold itself responsible for meddlesome intrusions like we have seen over the last few weeks.
Otherwise, you can say goodbye to college basketball as we know it today and hello to a hollow sport where pointless, one-year stints on campus are the norm as rich, powerful professional actors take over what used to be a refreshingly amateur enterprise.
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