Adam Silver, NBPA chief talk one-and-done rule with new commission
— -- With momentum gathering to reshape the one-and-done draft entry rule, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts met with the new Commission on College Basketball in Washington on Thursday, league sources told ESPN.
Silver and Roberts delivered the league and union perspectives on issues facing the basketball industry, including ways that changing the dynamics of the NBA draft could impact the pro and college games. The meeting was described as informational in nature, although the NCAA ultimately has no formal say in rules governing the league's early-entry rules.
The commission, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, was formed in the wake of the FBI investigation into college basketball.
Draft eligibility rules must be collectively bargained between the NBA and the players' association, and that conversation has been ongoing between the league and union, sources tell ESPN.
Nevertheless, there's a growing belief within the league that Silver's desire to end the one-and-done -- the ability of college basketball players to enter the NBA draft after playing one year in college -- could be pushing the sport closer to high school players having the opportunity to directly enter the league again. For that change to happen, though, the union would probably need to cede the one-and-done rule and agree to a mandate that players entering college must stay two years before declaring for the draft.
The union has long wanted players able to enter the NBA draft out of high school, but they ceded that in the 2006 collective bargaining agreement.
Silver told ESPN's Mike & Mike last month that the one-and-done rule is "clearly not working for the college game."
The NCAA assembled a commission of dignitaries long on credentials and professional achievement, if not short on practical knowledge of the corruption that bridges the gap between college basketball and the NBA. The commission includes USA Basketball chairman Martin Dempsey, a retired general, David Robinson, Grant Hill, and former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler.
