The one-and-done rule forces high school phenoms be ineligible to enter the NBA Draft until they are 19, but with the right coaching, their journey to superstardom can start immediately.
Some of the best to ever play in the NBA were drafted straight from high school. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James are three that come to mind immediately. On the other hand, there have been a plethora of players who tried to make the jump from high school to the NBA and didn’t pan out as expected.
In 2006, the draft age rule was implemented in the collective bargaining agreement. Known as the “one-and-done” rule, it states that a player is ineligible for the NBA Draft until a year after they’ve graduated from high school.
To this day, this rule has been a controversial topic because players that believe they can make the NBA out of high school end up using the college route as a pit-stop and not a situation where they can work towards earning a degree.
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Despite rumblings of making adjustments to this rule, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has stood firm and actually thought about raising the minimum age to 20. In the past couple of NBA drafts, there have been a number of players that have proven they can be the league’s future superstars despite not even being old enough to legally drink alcohol.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 players who are 21 and under in the NBA today.
Next: No. 10