The 'Bradley Collegiate Rule'

If you ask a basketball fan whether they prefer college basketball or the NBA you'll probably get a very vocal response. Those who love college ball will enjoy the passion, the atmosphere, the rivalries, their school of choice and of course March Madness. Fans of the NBA will boast about the skill level, the athleticism, the pace of play and the superstars. I for one enjoy the college game mainly because my favorite school, North Carolina has sustained success while my local team, the Washington Wizards have struggled my entire life and my adopted favorite team from decades ago, the Detroit Pistons have had an uneven 25 years since the original Bad Boys era.

NCAA basketball hasn't changed much since I really started watching it in the early to mid 1990's. Sure there are more players who can shoot from further away, but the style of play is pretty much the same. What has changed is how long the student athletes are staying at their school. I'm speaking of the top talent. The NBA and the NCAA cannot figure out what is best for the best athletes and for both the schools and their future NBA teams. In the 90's you had the option to skip the NCAA all together and go straight to the NBA from high school and it had mixed results. For every Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James and Dwight Howard you had a Korleone Young, Leon Smith, Kwame Brown and James Lang. Seventeen year old kids had to forego up to 4 years of NCAA eligibility and roll the dice that they were one of the best 400 or so basketball players on the planet. That's a huge gamble. NBA teams, who will forever by mystified by 'potential' had to use one of their precious two draft picks on a completely unknown kid. All they had was game film against other players who would never see the NBA and very rarely even play D-I college ball and hype. When you missed (like the Wizards did with Kwame Brown) you missed big. Not only were fans robbed of seeing these players play on the college level and get better over time, but the players careers were over because you get one shot to succeed in the NBA. By the age of 20 these kids were done playing pro ball in the United States. Other kids their age were just finishing their Junior year of college potentially.

Starting in 2006 the NBA enacted the rule that to be eligible for the draft you had to be a full year removed from your High School class or 19 years of age. Initially this sounded okay. Fans would get to see the most hyped high school players play at least 25 college games to see if they were really good (i.e.Kevin Durant at the University of Texas). Then the issues arose. Would high school kids go to Europe for a year like Brandon Jennings did? That would still keep the NCAA locked out of top talent. No good for fans. What about the one and done's (as they would be come to known) and their education? All you had to do was be eligible for a semester and then knowing you weren't coming back could just relax in the spring (see Ben Simmons at LSU). Not good for the NCAA again. Recruiting would become horrible as you wouldn't know how long your players would stick around for. Then schools like the University of Kentucky and Duke realized they could just gather 3-5 of the best high school players every year and play a single season together. With everyone on the roster knowing they had one goal of playing in the NBA the next year they could showcase their talent on what is basically a six-month super senior high school All-Star team.

I despise this.

I am so glad North Carolina hasn't fallen prey to this cycle. I like to watch players get better over a 3-4 year period. See your defending champions with Seniors Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks and Juniors Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II. Both UK and Duke have won a National Championship since adopting their one and done rosters while UNC has been to 3 championship games, winning twice since 2006, with their style of recruiting. For fans like me I would hate to see a player for one season just to watch him leave for the NBA whether he was ready or not. No consistency, no flow and in five years the players are mostly forgotten. I'm looking at you Brandan Wright.

As for NBA teams they now get 25 more games of film to watch for the player but drafting college freshmen is still basically a crap shoot. Current mock drafts have 20+ freshman/international players being selected in just the first round of the NBA draft. Again that is a huge gamble on such a small sample size. How can a NBA team rationalize drafting oft-injured Duke freshman Harry Giles who averaged just 3.9 points and missed his senior year in High School due to a torn ACL? Compare that to how it used to be where it was rare for for college players to leave even after playing three years. Shaq played three years at LSU, Michael Jordan played three years at UNC, Tim Duncan played four years at Wake Forest and Steph Curry played three years at Davidson. Of course I have cherry picked names. There are plenty of juniors and seniors who have flopped in the NBA just as there have been plenty of freshman and sophomores to have great success at the next level.

Still I want to make it better for everyone. I want the NBA to receive players ready to play against the best talent in the world. This will allow coaches and GMs to have better success and teams to be able to build through the draft the way it was supposed to be. For the NCAA I want players to stay in school as long as possible. It will make the game better, help strengthen rivalries and force the kids to at least attend classes at a higher rate to stay eligible. Remember when Patrick Ewing went to three national championship games? Or when Christian Laettner went to four Final Fours or when Final Four MOP, Joel Berry came back for his senior season?

Here is my plan and how I came about it.

I was looking over drafts of years past and I noticed that Larry Bird was drafted sixth overall in 1978 by the Boston Celtics. Then it struck me...how was that possible?? Larry Bird played in the most famous college basketball game of all time in 1979 against Magic Johnson who was drafted first overall a few months later. Turns out Larry Bird was able to return to school and Boston had until draft night in 1979 to sign him or else he would go back into the draft. Apparently Bird had wanted to be the highest paid player on the Celtics or else he was going to go back into the draft where either the Lakers or Bulls would have been able to get Magic and Bird. Imagine that for a minute with Bird in LA and Magic in Chicago! The Celtics wound up making Bird the highest paid player in the NBA and I'd say that worked out for everyone including Chicago who continued to struggle until they backed into Michael Jordan five years later.

I don't like the fact that NBA teams could just draft a player whether they declared or not like how the Celtics did for Bird. What a huge risk for the NBA as the player has all the power once selected.

What I want to see is a hybrid of what Larry Bird got to do.

As the college basketball season ends, players can declare for the NBA up until mid-April. At the time they can not hire an agent, attend a NBA camp and then make a decision to stay in the draft or return to school. This decision needs to be made by the end of May so that the draft field is set for late June when the NBA draft is held.

Now for the twist.

Let the draft happen as normal, but as soon as it ends teams and players have 30 days to decide whether that player will stay in the NBA or go back to school for a final season. Either way the player signs their rookie contract with the same guaranteed money as it is now. This money would be held in a trust until the day that player finished in school to avoid any NCAA issues. If they returned to school as stated they can only play one season and will still be under contract to join their NBA team immediately following the conclusion of their college season. Imagine an NBA team getting a 'call-up' down the stretch in late March?

Not every player who gets drafted will be on team with an immediate need. Send them back to school. Maybe they are a long term project. Send them back to school. Maybe they are just full of  'potential' and could use another year of seasoning (or needed that money for the family). Send them back to school.

My case in point this year could be somebody like freshman center Tony Bradley from UNC. He has potential but he came off the bench for the Tar Heels. Let him get drafted but it would be wise of that team to send him back to school where he will be a focal point of the offense. Let him get stronger and develop a better offensive post game playing 30 minutes a game rather than coming off the bench for 4-6 minutes a game. This will also allow fans of that NBA team to track their future player the way MLB fans do with the minor leagues. Bridging the gap between those who watch the NBA and those who watch NCAA. The advantage to UNC would be getting back a pro-caliber player for another year. Roy Williams would now know exactly when Bradley was going to leave and would be able to recruit with that in mind. Tony Bradley would have a guaranteed payday and the ability to improve himself while missing most of his rookie year while playing far more than he would have anyways.

For the NCAA this would hopefully be the end to the 'one and done' super teams. With more players coming back for a sophomore season the talent pool would get spread around to smaller schools. In recent years the 'mid-major' schools have disappeared from the rankings and NCAA Tournament. It will be a trickle down effect. Top stars won't recycle annually forcing second tier players to get their playing time elsewhere in the hopes of catching the eye of pro scouts. More schools playing better basketball and better basketball players playing longer for their schools. Name recognition increases as do story lines, rivalries and quality of play.

Win-win-win. The NBA mitigates its risk of forcing players into their lineup before they're ready. NCAA schools get a better, more consistent product and elite athletes get that guaranteed money for when they leave school.

In 1979 it was known as the 'Bird Collegiate Rule' that ended the option of going back to school after being drafted. Now I will be more than happy to start the push for the 'Bradley Collegiate Rule' to try something new.