Dates for NBA Draft, Combine and withdrawal deadlines set

UPDATE

The NBA’s early-entry deadline for the draft will be May 30th, and the withdrawal deadline is July 19th. This is however, not the NCAA deadline to withdraw from the draft, which is likely to be earlier in July.

Now that we’re getting back to a somewhat normal sports schedule, we won’t have to wait until the fall for the NBA Draft to kick off.

Normally held in June, last year’s draft was postponed all the way until November due to COVID-19. That made for a very challenging pre-draft process, especially for college teams who had to wait until the fall to learn if their NBA prospects were staying or leaving for the pros.

Thankfully, that won’t be the case this year, as Shams Charania reports the 2021 draft will be held in July.

While the NCAA has yet to announce when players must withdraw from the draft to retain college eligibility, one can surmise that deadline will be sometime in early July once the NBA Combine has concluded (the NCAA deadline is typically 10 days after the combine).

That means the Kentucky Wildcats will hopefully learn what Isaiah Jackson’s final decision will be in the early summer instead of late August like last year.

As of now, Jackson is the only Wildcat who’s testing the NBA waters but keeping the option open to return for a sophomore season. He’s still very likely to stay in the draft, but it’s still good to know this process won’t drag on until the fall.