He definitely doesn't need to play anymore to get that top pick. Even any blowback for sitting wouldn't be enough to stop a team taking him if they got a chance as its all about upside.

That's why I think Dante would still have been a first rounder, and likely even a lottery pick even with his weaknesses "exposed" as at the end of the day he was still a great athlete with a tantalising set of skills and plenty of upside.

I would not be surprised so see more and more of players of his caliber choose to sit for a year between high school and the NBA. Just training. Why risk it?

I still think the college system works for 99% of its athletes. Its those top 5-10 players who are NBA locks who should start looking elsewhere.

Simple fix, remove the 1 and done rule and let the players and teams decide. One of the worst rules in professional sport.

Gee I love to know how many of these high school graduates can genuinely afford an $8 million injury insurance policy. I don't think that is a realistic option for most, and the fact such a policy is even possible is evidence of a major problem...

I think the NBA needs to remove the 19 year old/one year removed from HS rule. If they're good enough to go pro, let em.

Yes, you'll get some kids who over value themselves and end up out, but surely even they'll end up in G league.

Protecting the NCAAs monopoly on 18 year olds should not be what the NBA is about. IF the NCAA feels they're not getting the quality players, let the schools openly pay the kids to get them there. Sure, it'll only be the big schools that can afford to do it, but its mostly the big schools who stand to lose the most with top picks skipping college and also get the kids that are in those conversations.

I refuse to watch NCAA because of my opinion of it being a crook system exploiting young men. You only have to look at the salaries and luxuries around some of those teams to see it's criminal e.g. Coach K getting $8m per year (and trainers/assistant coaches making hundreds of thousands), $300m basketball stadiums, private planes etc, CBS paying nearly a $1b for the rights to the NCAA tournament. It's disgusting.

However, on the other hand, I do see the practical problems with trying to pay student-athletes (but let's be honest, the NCAA isn't refusing to pay because of those practical problems).

It's worse than that. There have been cases where athletes were violated because the coach bought them lunch once. A lesbian track athlete got kicked out of home when she came out to her parents, her friends put together a GoFundMe for her, and the NCAA ruled her ineligible as a result.

The system is a joke.

I think the "..but the athletes are getting free education" angle/argument kept a lot of people from being critical of the NCAA...but now, with the kind of money and commercialisation of the NCAA, people are seeing that that angle/argument is now complete nonsense.

It's no longer a fair deal.

NCAA are trying to control every part of the SA; it's a disgusting case of commercial control.

The final straw for me was the De La Haye case in Florida.

De La Haye makes a Youtube channel in 2011 showing his football prowess including drills, tackles etc (the channel is called "Deestroying").

He builds up a big following through his own time, expense and inconvenience (few hundred thousand followers). Gets some money from it for views/subscribers.

Joins University of Central Florida in 2015 as their kicker. He is kicked off the team in 2017 for apparent breach of NCAA rules.

Allegedly he breached a by-law that 'the NCAA prevents student expression, including when a student receives compensation in connection with a use of the student's name, image, appearance or physical attributes.

De La Haye offered to even turn off any monetisation ability from the videos before his scholarship was rescinded - but the school/NCAA said No, pack your bags.


Rules are one thing; but controlling basic human rights and profiting off of that is disgusting.

It's unquestionably slavery.

Perhaps the NBA could look into reducing the draft age back down to 18 or graduated high school, whatever is lower and then just having a play age of 19.

Utilize the G-league as that stepping stone, so players are eligible to play in the G-league until they are 19.

The insurance policy he has was apparently paid for by Duke and is legal under NCAA rules. This surprised me considering the stupid rules the NCAA has a bucketful of as mentioned by Kobe

If you were a parent of a touted top 10 pick I guess sitting out a year might seem like an option. However it's just as easy to get injured doing a workout with a trainer as it is playing the game.

As a player I think it would be really difficult to do it. Who wouldn't want all the things you'd get from going to a highly ranked college. Duke for instance.....you get coached by an all time great. You're almost certain to be in a winning team. You're guaranteed a tonne of media exposure and you're almost certain to go deep into the NCAA Tournament and what an experience that is. Who wouldn't want to do it

I think the calls for Zion to do it are silly. Does anyone know of anyone ever doing it? There's been lots of top 10 picks over the years and I can't recall anyone quitting on their team two thirds of the way into the season to do it

In the past I think there was also a rule that you could be drafted but still play college ball as long as you hadn't actually signed your contract. Pretty sure Larry Bird did this (could be wrong).

Would allow players to test their value and if they don't get drafted, just go (back) to college.

There'd be details to work out for sure but it could work.

If a player gets drafted in the first round they could negotiate with their team if they don't feel like they're NBA ready (basically a college "draft n stash") but having that guaranteed contract waiting for them.

Gets trickier for second rounders, but I'm sure people cleverer than me could think of ways that it could work.

It's unquestionably slavery.

The NCAA is just filling a gap created by the NBA's laziness, in that sense