NBA’s one-and-done rule will remain until at least 2020, according to report

High school athletes could be eligible for the NBA Draft again by 2020, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The report comes in the wake of suggestions made by the Condoleezza Rice led Commission on College Basketball which called for the end of the one-and-done rule.

The one-and-done rule went into effect following the 2005 NBA Draft. Ever since, top recruits have been mandated to spend at least one year in college, despite the prep-to-pros success of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and others.

While those invested in college basketball might want the one-and-done to go away, it’s important to remember it’s an NBA rule that is collectively bargained between the players’ association and the owners. Adam Silver has been talking about reviewing the one-and-done rule for years, and Rice’s report could be the impetus for the change to go into effect.

“One-and-done has to go one way or another,” Rice told the Associated Press.

The commission also suggested that players who leave school early and go undrafted be permitted to return to the same school.

What happens in college basketball if the NBA doesn’t act on the committee’s one-and-done suggestion?

The commission did, however, say if the NBA and NBPA refuse to change their rules in time for the next basketball season, it would reconvene and consider other options for the NCAA, such as making freshmen ineligible or locking a scholarship for three or four years if the recipient leaves a program after a single year.

The idea of freshmen ineligibility is a sham. But that’s not the NBA’s problem.

If the NBA is serious about this change, it would add a ton of intrigue around the 2020 draft, which would suddenly include the top high school seniors and top college freshmen who were still permitted to go to school for a year.

The potential last class of one-and-done players would be current high school seniors. The top ranked recruits in the incoming senior class include centers Vernon Carey Jr., James Wiseman, and Charles Bassey, and point guard Cole Anthony, the son of former NBA veteran Greg Anthony.

The current incoming juniors could be the first class since 2005 with the ability to enter the league straight from high school. That class is still taking shape, but is led by guards Jalen Green, R.J. Hampton, and Jalen Suggs, as well wings Scottie Barnes and Greg Brown and big man Isaiah Todd.