John Calipari believes changes to the one-and-done rule are still years away

Contrary to popular opinion, John Calipari did not invent the one-and-done rule that forces basketball players to be a year removed from high school before going to the NBA. In fact, even the NCAA had nothing to do with it.

The NBA rules state that “players must be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year of the draft, and a player who completed basketball eligibility at an American high school must also be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.”

This is an NBA rule, agreed upon by the NBA and the NBA Player’s Association (NBAPA). For that reason, John Calipari does not believe it will be an easy fix.

Via Darril Bird of CatsPause:

Because Calipari believes this eligibility requirement will be a leverage point for upcoming negotiations between the league and the NBAPA, as he spoke about at SEC Spring Meetings with CatsPause, and he thinks that could cause the current rule to stand for a few more years.

“I think it’ll be two years, maybe more,” Calipari said. “Maybe it stays.”

He also spoke about how he might do things if the rules do change. But he does not seemed concerned about a potential change because, well, Kentucky eats first regardless of the rules.

“I may have guys for two or three years, which would be awful,” he joked. “Maybe I go back to my UMass days where you have guys for three or four years. It would be fun.”

You know what else sounds fun? The 2018-2019 roster, regardless of the one-and-done rule. I think Big Blue Nation can handle this for a few more years.