The History of the One and Done Era
Introduction
Prior to 2006, prospective high school students who desired to declare for the NBA draft could do so, though not many did. Kevin Garnett began the trend after 2 decades of basketball players attending college to some degree instead of successfully going straight from high school to the NBA. Others followed suite, like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, who have had successful careers in the league. In 2006, the NBA altered its eligibility rules, which require that, “an amateur player of American origin be at least nineteen-years-old on December 31 of the year of the NBA draft and that at least one NBA season must have passed from when he graduated from high school, or when he would have graduated from high school, and the NBA draft.” This draft in 2006 was “the first draft to which the NBA age rule applied.” The One-and-Done phenomenon is where a prospective player who will most likely enter the NBA draft at a high seed, a player like Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant, go to school at a premier university for one year, and then declare for the draft. The One-and-Done rule should be done away with, and players should be required to go to college for at least three years. This mimics the NFL eligibility rules, where players have to be three years removed from their high school graduation to be eligible for the draft. Having players stay to develop until after their junior year leaves them with more options. One option is to declare for the draft after the three years and be more mentally and physically prepared for a professional career within the NBA. Another option is to remain at school and continue with their last year of NCAA eligibility and have the chance to receive an undergraduate degree, which can give a player a steady backup plan in case a professional basketball career in the NBA does not work out.
Within this project, our group’s goal is to answer some pressing questions regarding the controversial one-and-done era in college basketball. What are the consequences of such a rule? How does the one-and-done rule affect players and their families? How does the one-and-done rule positively or negatively affect universities that recruit top 100 players? Should this one-and-done phenomena be rid of? Should players be forced to attend college for a minimum of three years? Our research will answer questions like this, along with other similar questions pertaining to the controversy that is the one-and-done rule. It’s fair to point out that many analysts and professional scholars believe that this one-and-done phenomena should be eradicated because of its negative effects on college basketball and the NCAA tournament. It’s important to note, however, that high school graduates have options if they feel like college isn’t the right move for them. They can attempt “to navigate the complex terrain of the European Pro Circuit, enter the NBA Development League for a five-figure salary,” or they can just go to college if one is willing to give them a full-scholarship. Whether or not to make these players remain in school for another year or two, or to let them go right to the NBA out of high school, is argued about by many. Even the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, “has been adamantly clear that increasing the age limit for the NBA Draft is his top priority.”
A variation of primary, secondary, and leading scholarship articles and resources will allow our group to answer the above questions, and further argue our point about why the NBA eligibility rules should be altered so players are required to stay in college for at least three years if they plan on declaring for the draft. Some of the primary sources our group will use in this research project include articles covering the legality of the age restrictions in the NBA from Michael McCann, the NBA’s eligibility rules pointed out by Ryan Rodenberg, draft rules, and early entry rules depicted by Martin Greenbern and John Wilson. Our secondary resources will include information from Bleacher Report from Grant Hughes regarding why the one-and-done rule is causing more harm than good in today’s NBA and NCAA, which will help our group argue our main point. We will also look at the overall history of the one-and-done era from Yannis Koutroupis, and Myron Medcalf’s ESPN article on the roots of the one-and-done rule. These articles written by professional sports analysts, as well as other leading scholars, will give this project the specific information it needs to help us debate our main argument, which states that NCAA college basketball players should not be able to take advantage of this “one-and-done” phenomena as top prospects, and that they should be required to remain in school until they are three years removed from their high school graduation if they desire to be eligible for the NBA draft. The one-and-done rule does more harm than good, both to the NCAA and the NBA, and needs to be altered.
Origins
The history and origins of the NBA Draft eligibility rules dates back to the early 1970s and leads up to the One and Done rule we know and discuss today. The world of basketball in the United States, which includes both collegiate and professional, would not be what it is today without the discussions in rule changes specializing in age and eligibility requirements. Prior to 1970, the standards for entering your name into the NBA draft were simple: complete your collegiate eligibility, or four years of college basketball. A man named Spencer Haywood helped push for alterations in those rules after the 1968-69 season at the University of Detroit during his second collegiate year. Haywood was lighting up the stat sheets with gaudy numbers throughout the couple years’ prior. He played his way onto the 1968 US Olympic basketball team, where he led the team to the gold medal while leading in scoring. He believed his talents and athletic abilities were good enough to make the jump to the NBA after his sophomore year. He signed a deal with the Seattle Supersonics, but the NBA didn’t allow him to play because he did not comply with their eligibility requirements. Haywood took that decision all the way to the US Supreme Court in the case Haywood v. National Basketball Association. In 1971, the court decided in favor of Haywood, eliminating the NBA’s eligibility requirement.
This monumental decision opened a pathway to the professional game for a few generations of younger, up-and-coming talent. The increase in players bypassing college and going pro right out of high school began in the mid to late 1970’s with players such as Hall-of-Famer Moses Malone. That trend slowed down throughout the 1980’s but got an even bigger boost in the 1990’s. Kevin Garnett was USA Today’s High School Player of the Year in 1995 and chose to forgo his college eligibility to enter into the NBA Draft, where he was selected fifth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. This helped set the stepping stones to an expectedly unanimous hall-of-fame resume, winning one NBA MVP and one NBA championship along with being one of the fiercest players of his era. The list of NBA talent who declared for the draft after high school continues and includes more of some of the greatest players to ever play the game, including Kobe Bryant (1996), Tracy McGrady (1997) and LeBron James (2003). That trend would continue to thrive through the 2005 NBA draft with all-star players like Dwight Howard (2004) and Monta Ellis (2005).
Things took a turn on July 30th, 2005 when the Collective Bargaining Agreement was renewed and revised. Articles VIII and X covered the ins and outs of NBA Draft eligibility, which included some changes from the previous CBA. Players wishing to become eligible for the draft now have to be at least 19 years old in that calendar year and have at least one basketball season pass between that draft and their high school graduation, which is a large alteration from the original rule of being at least 18 years old. The norm for players in that situation is to attend college for one year and then put their name in. That player can then opt to come back to college if they aren’t one of the 60 players selected, but he loses the rest of his college eligibility if he then signs with an agent or declares in two drafts total. This rule has since had a major impact on young men and college basketball nationwide.
The University of Kentucky and its head coach, John Calipari, have been important figures when looking at the opinions and discussions had about the “One and Done” rule. The first two players selected in the 2012 NBA Draft, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, were both Kentucky freshmen the season prior. The list of players who have declared for the draft after one year at Kentucky under Calipari is extensive and includes top talent like John Wall and Demarcus Cousins. Calipari continues to bring in some of the highest-ranked recruiting classes and fills his team with freshmen year in and year out, and that creates even more buzz involving the NBA Draft eligibility rules around the country. Lots of history with the one and done rule still has to be written and conversations and opinions will flow throughout society until or unless drastic changes are made.
Development
Within the final decision to change the eligibility rules, a big compromise was made. David Stern wanted to require players entering the league to be 20 years of age. The NBA Players Association, however, was not fond of the idea and compromised with Stern to make the minimum age set at 19 years rather than 20. Stern has said his biggest reason for pushing for change in the prep to pro era was because, “he wanted his league's scouts and executives out of high school gyms”. The rule was still all the same challenging to implement. The big picture idea is that the NBA can provide prospects with more experience before entering the league. It gives pro teams more time to evaluate players, and allows the players more time to develop their skills. Either age potentially infringes on the Sherman Antitrust Act. This essentially says that trade cannot be restricted. In the case of the NBA they are restricting laborers, however the Act includes details about how businesses should not be run that may pose a disadvantage to someone without sufficient benefits. The NBA is more competitive because there are less busts, and more developed players entering the league. Requiring only one year does not allow for a player to truly develop into a better player, or person. Baseball and football both require that a player stay three years at the collegiate level once they enter college. This may encourage a student-athlete to stay for the fourth year and acquire a degree, as a student-athlete would have already seen three years of schooling and felt more influenced to finish out. Four years of college would also work numbers in separating those who are good enough to compete at the professional level and those who are not. Even requiring two years would allow a player to receive their Associate's degree rather than getting a small sense of college life only to immediately leave.
The one and done rule is one that entails much controversy. Enacted in 2006, the rule requires a player interested in declaring for the NBA draft to be 19 years in age accompanied by one year removed from their graduating high school class. Taj McDavid was the first player to declare for the draft immediately out of high school in over 20 years. McDavid went undrafted and salvaged an opportunity to play basketball at the DII level due to NCAA ineligibilities by declaring for the draft. Although other players were successful in going from high school to the NBA, with the likes of Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James finding immediate success in the NBA, not every athlete succeeded. Many went to the NBA as they came from a poor family and felt as if basketball was their only way to get their families out of poverty. Even after the implementation of the one and done rule, these athletes will simply go to college for a year followed by immediate departure in search of money. While McDavid may not have had a profound impact on basketball itself his impact on the NBA is unparalleled.
In order to find the origins of the one and done rule, the case of Spencer Haywood should be observed. “The NBA made players wait four years after graduating from high school before they were allowed to compete. But Haywood signed with the Sonics three years after high school, a decision that led to a legal battle with the NBA. The case was ultimately decided in 1971 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 7-2 against the league's four-year rule”. This was a crucial ruling as it ended the 4 year era. It lead to players such as Moses Malone and Darryl Dawkins forfeiting contracts with the ABA to sign with NBA teams. “Spencer Haywood, a nineteen-year-old basketball star from an impoverished family, challenged the rule. He characterized it as an unreasonable restraint of trade”. Haywood’s argument was that the NBA was breaking the Sherman Antitrust Act. He won his case and everything to occur in the legal scene regarding age requirements stems back to his decision to fight. Boris vs. the United States Football League argued something very similar to Spencer Haywood. Again, it was ruled that the league was not allowed to place these age requirements. Then, Kevin Garnett brought it back in 1996, and many others followed his wave. However, the NBA took examples like Taj McDavid to their advantage in arguing that while some players found success others did not. This is where the one and done rule came into existence for the draft of 2006. The rule has greatly affected the outlook of college basketball. It brings better prospects to the college level which helps to create more revenue. It also creates schools like Kentucky that highly promote the one and done idea in order to consistently recruit some of the best players in the country.
Rachel Martin interviewed journalism professor Kevin Blackistone on the matter. She posed the question why one year? Blackistone followed up, saying, “The rationale for it was that teenagers were too immature – physically, emotionally – to put up with the rigors of the NBA. And therefore, they would have to stay in college for at least a year or hit that age requirement before being eligible to play in the NBA”. Is one year in college where an athlete’s main focus is their sport rather than class that beneficial? This is where recent discussion comes into play. Adam Silver, commissioner of the league has recently released statements about his thoughts on the one and done rule. “My sense is it’s not working for anyone…It’s not working for the college coaches and athletic directors I hear from. They’re not happy with the current system. And I know our teams aren’t happy either, in part because they don’t necessarily think the players who are coming into the league are getting the kind of training that they would expect to see.” This leaves the one and done rule in great questioning. The problem is how to change the rule. Whether it be to do away with the rule entirely, or to extend the amount of time an athlete is required to attend college and develop more as a player in order to create the most competitive atmosphere possible at the professional level, is yet to be determined by the NCAA and the NBA.
Consequences
As we know from history of the one and done era, it could either have a positive or negative impact on the athlete. For example, there are great success stories in the pros, like Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and many more. Then you have the less successful athletes, like Anthony Bennett, Greg Oden, Rodney White and more that might look back and think, ‘maybe I should have stayed longer.’ We begin to ask ourselves, what are some of the consequences of going one and done? Doing this could not only affect the player’s future, but also the university’s future. The main point in going to college for these players is not only to be a basketball player, but also to be a “student athlete.” A student athlete is defined as “a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled.” This means these athletes have to balance being a full time athlete and a full time student. However, with these players being told they could go one and done, being primarily a student is not typically on their mind. According to Lynn O’Shaughnessy’s article “Do College Athletes Have Time to Be Students,” we see that DI college basketball players devote 32.9 hours a week to their sport and very little time to academics. These high ranked universities get hurt when their athletes skip class and only go during the season of their sport. It gives the schools a bad look in the academic aspect of things, but they remain successful in sports. One and done players not only affect universities academically, but financially as well. These athletes also attract fans to come to games, which makes money for the universities they play for. Players like Ben Simmons, Malik Monk, and Dennis Smith Jr. all filled their schools’ gyms and brought more attention to them due to their immense talent. Alex Berg from USA Today College stated, “Many NCAA tournament viewers are not year-round college basketball fans. It’s much more enticing to watch and cheer for the players that were the “heroes” in the previous tournament.” We understand that most fans are not diehard fans. They only want to see the stars in action. When the high-profile players leave, those same fans will likely also leave. These universities thrive from this attention and desire to keep these athletes for at least 2 or more years to attract more talent and fans. Schools like Kentucky and Duke always have good teams because of the players’ thoughts of going pro, which is why they always seem to get the 5 star recruits while other programs recruit lower ranked players. This is why Ben Simmons going to LSU and Dennis Smith Jr. going to NC State gave life to these programs, even though they didn’t have great seasons. It was a different look for the NCAA. However, those players leaving after one year didn’t affect the recruitment of top players as well as it would have if they stayed additional years. At the end of the day, top players want to play with other top players in order to win. Other programs do not already have this elite talent, so there’s a lower chance of top players playing for lesser-known programs.
This idea of the one and done era is influenced by big time coaches like John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski who see the star potential in their players. In an interview with Coach Calipari, he stated that these players are already ready for the NBA when they come to college, and if they have an opportunity to help their families out, why not? What some people don’t take into account who are against one and done, is that some of these players could change their family’s lives. Coach Calipari has one job when he gets recruits to play for him, and that is to get them prepared to go pro.
Some of these players come from nothing, and the money they get from their NBA contracts could help out a lot. When it comes to these players’ minds, their goal is to make money doing what they love. A great example of this is Ben McLemore from the University of Kansas. Ben struggled as a kid growing up as he lived in a small apartment that was shared with ten family members. His family battled financial issues, including going nearly 2 days without food. Moving forward with his life, getting a scholarship to Kansas and the opportunity to go one and done, he would pass up on that. He was drafted in the first round of the 2013 draft, and the money from his contact supported his family. It’s important to take into consideration the good that can come from going one and done and how it could change someone’s life. Finally, a huge consequence that players that go one and done face is having nothing to fall back on.
As stated above, the number one priority for these players is athletics and not academics. The players that go one and done work most of their lives to become a pro, so when they get a chance to get drafted, even if it’s not the right moment, they will take it. They should wait at least two years to become more developed and ready for the NBA. If these players are not prepared to play at the next level, they could be gone just like that due to lack of development and experience. Again, only a fraction of the players that go one and done are successful, which means the others will have a hard time finding jobs with no prior skills, and they then put their financial security at risk. We saw this with many one and done players that struggled to stay on teams because of their performance. Players like Anthony Bennett, Tyrus Thomas, Archie Goodwin and more who might think to this day, if staying additional years would have helped them succeed in the pros, they should have stayed in school. Therefore, more players at the collegiate level should stay more than one year to make sure they are prepared and stable if the pros do not work out for them. Staying in college for at least three years gives players the opportunity to prepare themselves for the pros by gaining collegiate experience, and gives the incentive to stay for even one more year and attain a bachelor’s degree as a solid backup plan in case becoming a professional basketball player does not work out.
Conclusion
With the information provided in the preceding pages, we see the origins, developments and consequences of the one-and-done era. The reasons are clear and straightforward as to why the NBA should forgo the one-and-done rule and require student-athlete basketball players to be a minimum of three years removed from high school to declare for the NBA draft. This rule change would bring excitement back to the NCAA tournament and not just have the same top-tiered college programs such as Duke, Kentucky and Kansas winning every game because their 5-star freshman athletes can outplay the 3-star junior on a Northern Iowa team. Fox Sports reporter Andrew Lynch makes a great point when he stated, “going back to college for a second season (or more) was acceptable 15 years ago. It was perfectly OK 10 years ago. But, in 2017, it’s a giant red flag.” What is the difference now? The problem with players today is that they are told they will be a star in the NBA at a young age and so that is all that they work for, that is all that they spend their time on their entire lives. They are likely not thinking about school when an NBA career is so close within reach. 15 years ago, you had to prove yourself in college before you could make a name for yourself in the NBA. For example, Zion Williamson is the number 2 high school player in the country in the class of 2018. Williamson gets more attention and NBA scout recognition than most college players. Why would this superstar high school player want to stick around college for more than one year when he has already been in the spotlight for his entire high school career, and then some? Another problem arising from the one-done-rule is how coaches are recruiting their players. Coaches have to now worry about, “how long are you going to have these players?” Before, when you recruit a player you know you will have this player for the next four years. Four years to shape, teach and make this kid a better player and person. In four years, a coach should not just be preparing their athletes for the professional game, but how to be a professional individual as well. Today, these players only care about the NBA and what the quickest route to it is. In today’s game, you now have two different types of colleges coaches: those who know how to develop a player overtime, and those who know how to coach superstar players and prepare them in a year’s time for the pros. With the one-and-done rule tossed out, you will see more evenly matched games, better all-around and developed players, and not just a bunch of 18-year-old freak athletes scoring 30 a night for John Calipari or Coach K.
Another important reason for getting rid of the one-and-done are the fans. College basketball fans and students are some of the most passionate and diehard fans there are. I personally do not like one-and-done players because, to me, they do not care about the school they are attending. To me, I think that all these players care about is making it to the NBA, and that the college that they spend their short (not even) 12 months at does not matter to them. As a fan, you cannot grow to love a player just because they are great. You love a player because they love the school they play for and they are not just playing for themselves, they are playing for the university and the thousands for students that attend that school. Draymond Green has always been my favorite basketball player because he stayed at MSU for four years. I felt like I knew Draymond by the time he graduated. He did so many positive things for this basketball program at MSU and for the entire university. Now, he is a two-time NBA champion and a Defensive Player of the Year recipient. Draymond likely could not have achieved all of that had he not stayed for four years at Michigan State. The NCAA has even agreed that it wants the NBA entry age limit to rise. The NCAA has stated that the one-done-rule leads to “lower quality of NCAA basketball, reduces player chemistry on colleges teams, negatively impacts fan perception of players who stay in college for more than one year and causes compliance issues as some top players stop attending classes before they leave school.” A three years removed from high school rule would change the NCAA basketball system and would change the development of players for the better.
Rules like this have already been put into place and have proved to work. The National Football League allows players to enter the draft only after completing three years of college (technically, three years removed from high school) and the Major League Baseball rule states that players can be drafted right out of high school or they can attend college where they must stay at least three years. Because of these rules there is never a discussion of whether or not a player in the NFL or MLB is ready the pros physically or mentally. Miami Hurricanes basketball head coach Jim Larranaga agrees that the NFL and MLB have it right while the NBA rule is wrong. He stated, “I think the baseball rule where they have to stay for three years is far better than our basketball rule. I think kids who would stay in college for three years would either graduate in three years or come back and finish their degree at a much higher rate.” The facts, the support, and the need is all there. The one-and-done rule needs to go for the sake of the game and for the sake of the players.