Brandon Jennings Poised to Destroy NBA-College One-Year Rule

A few years ago, NBA Commissioner David Stern and NCAA President Myles Brand came together and established the one year rule, which states that an incoming NBA player must be out of high school for at least one year prior to the draft.  The rule was stated as a move to lead high school players into college to help them mature and get an education.

In reality, it was a financially driven move by both sides.  NBA owners could see these anointed high school prodigies for at least a year in college to help weed out the busts.

Meanwhile, big conference college programs could essentially rent these players out for at least a season and reap huge profits and program notoriety. It was a win-win situation, and there has been talk of expanding the rule to two years out of college.

Proponents of the program claim the rule is a safeguard for high school seniors who are egged on by their peers to go straight to the NBA but aren’t ready or at least good enough to get drafted in the first round.  Others say that it’s the right of these players to jump ship if they feel like it.

Some of today’s best young players made the transition straight from high school with immediate success: LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Amare Stoudemire.  All of these players were physically ready to enter the league, and that is the main difference between modern high school prep stars and the ones in the days of Kobe and KG.

Greg Oden was physically able to play in the NBA out of high school.  Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo could’ve been playing in the league for a year now, and their success or struggles would have nothing to do with their physicality.

In the last high school draft classes, even the high school players that misjudged their decisions ended up having more success then failure.

Here is the last high school draft class (2005):

Martell Webster, 6th overall

Andrew Bynum, 11th overall

Gerald Green, 18th overall

C.J. Miles, 34th overall

Monta Ellis, 40th overall

Just three years later, all but one of these players have made their mark on a team.

Webster is starting to emerge as another scorer in Portland.  Bynum has developed into one of the league's most promising young centers.  Ellis is one of the league’s most electrifying players.

Miles has turned into a defensive force and would get a lot more playing time if not for the great depth in Utah.  Green is the only one that hasn’t truly panned out because he is still mentally a kid, but he did dunk while blowing out a cupcake—and no one else can say that.

An 80 percent success rate is pretty good and is easily competitive with players drafted from overseas.  A lot of high school players have to mature into their bodies before making it in the NBA, but so do many European players.

But those from across the Atlantic and beyond get paid for their development, while American kids aren’t enjoying the same ability to make a living from their best talent.

The argument that the rule is protecting players isn’t true—it is just delaying the inevitable.  College players are still very young in age and there is a good batch of them that make the mistake of coming out early each year.

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