Andre Miller always had an “old man's game”. There's a reason they nicknamed him “The Professor”. He got by with his head, and over time it became his old man's game. The last two years of his career he recovered somewhat, playing for several teams each season while pursuing a title.
Miller ended his career with the Spurs, where he played six games when he was 40 years old. Juwan Howard is now the head coach of his alma mater, Michigan, where he was a member of the Fab Five. He spent his last seasons with the Miami Heat, where he was basically a de facto coach while technically remaining a player (after which they turned him into a real coach). People have been calling him a future coach ever since, and now, just a few years later, he has a great university job. Haslem is a much loved legend in Miami, although he has basically been a de facto coach rather than a Heat player in recent seasons.
However, it's even harder to play until your late 30s, and staying professional until your 40s, if you're not a bowler or golfer, is a truly rare feat. Mahorn first appeared on an NBA court in 1980 with the Washington Bullets and played his last games in 1999 with the Philadelphia 76ers when he was 40 years old. After the 1969-70 season, he dropped out of college to go to the then NBA rival, the American Basketball Association (ABA), which offered an exemption for difficult living conditions to players who hadn't finished high school for four years. Haywood then signed a contract with the Seattle SuperSonics (who later moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder), setting him and the Sonics on a path to clashing with the NBA, as they were only three years away from graduating from high school.
In addition, players can declare for the draft multiple times without losing college eligibility, as long as they retire before the new deadline without hiring an agent or signing a professional basketball contract, and are now allowed to attend the combined draft and one test per year for each NBA team without losing college eligibility. Following the decision, the NBA allowed players to register early in cases of financial difficulties, which basically meant that the player had to prove that he had financial difficulties. Tennis players have a grace period of six months after graduation to enroll in a D1 school and 12 months to enroll in a D2 school. Ice hockey players have until their 21st birthday to enroll in a D1 school and a three-year grace period after graduating to enroll in a D2 school.
The NBA draft is a major annual event in which all 30 NBA franchises select new players for their teams. Division 3 (D) schools have a semester eligibility schedule, rather than strict grace periods or a five-year eligibility period.
