If you want to be in the NBA, it pays to, among other things, be excellent at playing basketball.
If you want to be in the NBA draft, basketball skills are not required.
A group of 18 people are officially “draft-eligible” for Thursday’s festivities at New York’s Barclays Center, and they all have one thing in common: They won’t be drafted. The NBA places them on what it calls a “B List” — officially “Unidentified Individuals.” All that was required was to fill out the necessary paperwork to enter the draft, a process that allowed some with no real basketball ability to advance.
It is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on for nearly half a century. Some do it and attract attention, others just keep quiet. It’s surprising, sure, but the rules are clear: If someone meets the general criteria set by the NBA, they can become “eligible” for the draft.
A law student from Florida named Jordan Haber is one of 18 named this year. He has posted several videos on TikTok detailing how he got into this year’s draft. He said he’ll be at Barclays Center Thursday night for the draft — with tickets from the arena’s social media team, not an invitation from the NBA.
Who can enter the draft?
It’s really quite simple, as described in Article X, Section 1 of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (which only lasts until July 1, but the rule on this isn’t expected to change much).
A player must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year in which the draft is held, and at least one NBA season must have passed since the player graduated (or must have graduated) from high school. From there, all a person needs to do is express interest in the NBA at least two months before the draft, give up the rest of their college eligibility if necessary, and fill out a few paperwork.
There are other rules, especially with regards to international players, but this is the basic one.
Is this a loophole in the system?
No, it’s not a loophole. It is part of a process that has been around for years. The B-list is a way for the tallest long shots to see if they can make it. The first person to apply was a player named Reinhard Schmuck, who played in nine games in one season at Division III Baruch College. He tried out for the NBA two years later and told The Washington Post in 1987 that he was doing it to raise awareness of Baruch’s sports programs.
“I am really a nobody,” Chmook was quoted as saying. “I wanted to do it because there are so many kids who give up on their dreams.”
How many times have you done this?
There is no official count, but it is believed to be in the hundreds. Author Jeff Perlman did just that while a student at Delaware State in 1993; In an article he wrote a few years later for Sports Illustrated, Perlman revealed that the NBA called to say “nobody here has heard of you.”
In 2008, a student from Washington University in St. Louis named Zachary Feinstein took a shot at getting into the NBA and detailed the exploits on a webpage.
He revealed on that page: “I also don’t play basketball,” he said.
But he got into the draft anyway.
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