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The NBA may have just dropped a major bombshell on college basketball.
According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, the NBA is considering allowing college and international players to enter the NBA Draft if they haven’t already. However, this is pending NBPA approval, so it’s not a done deal.
Important to clarify that after the NCAA withdrawal deadline of August 3rd, any collegiate player who enter the NBA Draft (by August 17th) will be in for good. This is all pending NBPA approval, so nothing official yet until that happens.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 20, 2020
If this comes to pass, it would hurt the Wildcats’ chances of getting Olivier Sarr for the 2020-21 season. A big part of their argument for getting Sarr immediately eligible is that while he was at Wake Forest, his coached was fired right before the NBA Draft entry deadline. Therefore, he wasn’t given a chance to make an informed decision on entering the draft, and because his coach was also fired, he should be eligible at his next school.
Now that Sarr can enter the draft again, that argument goes away.
Then there’s the fact that Sarr could actually enter the draft and end up staying there, even if he is eligible to play next season. After all, he was planning to enter it before, but Danny Manning convinced Sarr to remain at Wake Forest.
Before today, I think the odds were good that Sarr would be eligible next season. Now, it feels more like a 50-50 deal at best.