The truth behind the NBA’s one-and-done rule and why it needs to go

The NBA’s one-and-done rule instituted in 2006 has limited the ability of individuals seeking to enter the NBA after high school graduation. The rule has benefited the NBA and the NCAA while limiting the earning power of young players. The motives for the rule are financial rather than humanitarian.

The 2007 NBA Draft is rightfully known for the vastly different career paths of its top two picks, Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. Durant recently completed his resume with an NBA title while Oden is taking classes back at Ohio State and dealing with lingering injuries. What is often forgotten is why these players were not drafted the year prior.

In 2005, there were nine players selected during the two rounds of the draft who did not have college experience. The 2006 draft was the first draft under the NBA’s “one-and-done” policy, which required an individual to be at least 19 years of age and one year removed from high school graduation. This policy was sold as a way of giving players the best opportunity to succeed in the league by acquiring experience beforehand.

Throughout its history, the NBA has been unable to produce a minor-league farm system which consistently develops talent. Much like the NFL, the NBA relies on NCAA athletics as its de facto minor league system. This informal arrangement worked to the benefit of both parties for decades. Problems began to arise when the best talent began to forgo freshman orientations for NBA locker rooms.

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The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Kevin Garnett with the fifth pick in the 1995 NBA Draft. Garnett became the first player drafted straight out of high school to the NBA in 20 years and opened the floodgates for players like himself. Future Hall-of-Famer Kobe Bryant and six-time All-Star Jermaine O’Neal followed in 1996. Tracy McGrady was picked ninth overall in 1997 and has been voted into the Hall of Fame.

Despite the prominent careers experienced by these players, not every high school player drafted would have similar success. Protecting players such as undrafted NYC legend Lenny Cooke is often cited as a major reason for the one-and-done policy. The thought process is that by denying immediate access to the NBA, players will be more prepared when they finally arrive and more likely to succeed. While it is nice to believe that the NBA teams are looking out for young individuals and their futures, they are not in the charity business.

The main reason behind the one-and-done policy relates to the financial and organizational commitment to a teenaged individual. The immediate success of Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady led teams to start searching for their own prospect. When some of these players such as Jonathan Bender, Eddy Curry and most notably Kwame Brown did not pan out, NBA executives began blaming the system rather than themselves.

"“I think the league wants to justify the one-and-done rule,” Kwame Brown told HoopsHype. “They act like, somehow, it’s better for a kid to go to college for four months and be a one-and-done player rather than going straight to the NBA. I think they’ve made me the poster child for why players shouldn’t go straight to the NBA from high school.”"

Evaluating player talent is an inherently difficult task for professional sports teams. Without being able to evaluate players in the collegiate ranks, the job became even more difficult for NBA scouts. Rather than question their scouts and scouting reports, team executives began to rumble about creating some form of age limit. Essentially, teams wanted the league to save them from themselves at the expense of the high school players.

The NBA was not the only organization claiming that its product was being diluted by the amount of high school stars skipping college. Viewership for NCAA games reached a modern-day low in 2003, which coincides with the 2001 draft class dominated early by high school players. Colleges were losing out on recruits and therefore booster money, television revenue and ticket sales. The NBA was “picking off” the best talent in the nation and college basketball suffered as a result.

The one-and-done rule served its purpose for the NBA by allowing them an extra year of talent evaluation with zero financial investment. The rule also benefited colleges by forcing players to choose between college, overseas or the Developmental League as they await NBA draft eligibility. Last year, the NCAA tournament had its most viewers in over two decades. The only group of people that was negatively affected by the new policy was the players.

"“It’s not a bad situation,” player agent Charles Tucker told USA TODAY. “You’re only going to hurt maybe five percent. That’s the elite group. It’s going to help colleges.”"

Under the current collective bargaining agreement, the first pick in the NBA draft is guaranteed over $12 million during his first two years in the league. The last pick of the first round is guaranteed over $2.5 million during that same two-year stretch. The average person with a high school degree will earn just short of $1 million in their lifetime. Clearly, the money available to these players is life-altering and beyond the grasp of most members of society.

Not every person that graduates from high school is meant for college. The world is filled with countless individuals who have risen to prominent heights without the benefit of higher education. The world is perhaps filled with more people who have degrees and are unable to find jobs that satisfy their soul and salary demands. If a teenager is talented enough to fill a high-profile position of employment, they should be allowed to do so.

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If Kwame Brown and other high school prospects had gone to work at a construction site or a textile factory after they graduated from high school in order to support their family, there would be no public uproar about young players being “given too much” early in their careers. Players who have flamed out of the league were still able to make millions of dollars as first round draft picks, making them immediately richer than the average citizen. Whether they invest that money properly has no bearing on whether they should have been allowed to be drafted in the first place.

Athletes are people who happen to play sports and some people are capable of playing sports at the highest level. That group of people deserves the same opportunities to either excel or fail as the rest of the population. The NBA has effectively sold the image that the one-and-done rule is for the benefit of the player.

The hypocrisy of the rule was evident back in 2006 when LeBron James, Jermaine O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett were all selected to the NBA All-Star Game. The league was celebrating and promoting players drafted from high school while simultaneously barring future high school draftees.

It is time to end the one-and-done rule and start viewing it as what it truly is: the NBA’s attempt to limit their financial risk, much to the benefit of the NCAA and the detriment of the players. Life is largely unpredictable and opportunities do not always remain available. If an individual has a unique chance to make life-changing money after receiving a high school diploma, they should be allowed to pursue that venture.

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The past failures of some players and organizations should not hinder the potential success of others. The NBA’s one-and-done rule does not guarantee that a player will be more prepared for the league, only that the league will be more informed about them.