How to Fix a Big NBA Problem

Among consistency of officiating and the new "super team" era a big problem facing the NBA is the infamous "One and Done" rule. This rule states that a player must be 19 years old and at least one year removed from high school graduation, this has not always been the case however, before the rule change in 2006 we saw some of the game's great players come straight from prep, among them are Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Lebron James, and Dwight Howard. However, if you look at a list of players who have been drafted out of high school there will be a lot of names you no longer recognize which strengthens the case for forcing players to go to college. Perhaps if players such as Kwame Brown or Sebastian Telfair would have gone to college their careers could have turned out differently, but only one year of college is not the option. The "one and done rule has made a joke out of the NCAA and the college experience, incoming players don't attend classes or attend them enough to maintain a minimum GPA then bolt to the NBA halfway through spring semester. In addition, the quality of the NBA game is diminishing as players who are not ready to play in the NBA leave early in pursuit of millions of dollars (ex. Marvin Williams, Hasheem Thabeet). In reality there are only two ways to fix this problem, either implement the baseball rule in the draft or players should play else where other than college for a year. 

courtesy of tsminteractive.com

For the kids that don't even care about getting an education and just want to play basketball, why make them stay longer? If a player is deemed worthy of the NBA, he shouldn't be held back to do something that has no significance in his career path. Although less glorious and visible than college basketball, there is another option. The NBA's D-League allows anyone 18 years of age or older to tryout—graduated or not. The only stipulation is that the player's graduating class must have graduated already.The D-League could easily become a minor league system that uses the draft much like the current system of the MLB. From there, the player can decide if he wants to take on college or the NBA D-League. Yes, an increased popularity in the D-league would ultimately put a dent in college basketball revenue, but I don't think anyone will be going broke over it. Also, players could go overseas and play for a year, this way they can get paid for their services as well as gain professional experience before going into the NBA. Brandon Jennings was the first to do this in 2008 after graduating high school, he later admitted the Euro league prepared him for the NBA and he is now and all-star point guard with the Milwaukee Bucks. 

Another alternative is to adopt the draft rule of Major League Baseball, in their system a player can go pro after graduating high school, but if they choose to go to college they must stay 3 years. If a high school player is selected in the draft, they then have thirty days to decide if they will go the NBA or play in college. If they elect to play in college, an athlete must go to college for three years before they can become draft eligible again. Once those three years are up, the team that originally drafted the player has the ability to retain his rights or relinquish his rights. If his rights are relinquished, he then is open to be picked by any team. 

The NBA would be wise to adopt this rule, it allows the best players to go to the draft early and also allows the more developmental players to improve their game for 3 more years, in addition, a more developed minor league system would also help the league improve their future players who are not ready for the league.