League submits a proposal to end one-and-done

The one-and-done rule could be coming to an end. At least there is an actual proposal for its conclusion.

The NBA has filed a proposal to the league’s Players Association to lower the draft-eligible age from 19 to 18, USA Today reported, with NBPA executive director Michele Roberts set to review it next week.

This is a major step in actual negotiations for implementing it ahead of the 2022 draft.

The conversation around the topic has come to the forefront this week, after Duke phenom Zion Williamson suffered a Grade 1 sprain of his right knee. The injury, though not as seri- ous as initially feared by basketball fans, reignited the debate over prospects being able to go straight to the NBA from high school instead of having to wait a year, most commonly spent in college.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been a proponent of changing the current draft rules, set in 2005 during David Stern’s tenure.

“My personal view is that we’re ready to make that change,” Silver said last July. “When I’ve weighed the pros and cons, given that Condoleezza Rice and her commission [on college basketball] has recommended to the NBA that those one-and-done players now come directly into the league, and in essence the college community is saying we do not want those players anymore. That sort of tips the scale in my mind that we should be taking a serious look at lowering our age to 18.”