All draft players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. NBA · Later Story · Automatic Eligibility. Discussions about lowering the minimum age for entering the NBA draft are no longer part of the league's labor talks with the National Association of Basketball Players, clearing the way for the one and ready era to continue for the foreseeable future, sources told ESPN on Friday. In addition, the increase in significant financial opportunities for players before joining the NBA, including naming, and likeness rights in NCAA basketball and the real salary contracted with the G League Ignite and Overtime Elite programs, has weakened the NBPA's belief that an aggressive effort is needed to lower the draft limit, the sources said. The creation of the Ignite team is probably one of the reasons why the NBA decided not to lower the age requirement, because it would basically wipe out a program that it just created three years ago.
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. For several years there has been talk of lowering the minimum age to enter the NBA Draft to 18, but ESPN reports that if the two parties reach an agreement Friday night, there would be no change to that rule. Talks to lower the minimum age limit for American players from 19 to 18 and allow players to return to the NBA after high school had been part of ongoing talks about a new collective bargaining agreement, but neither party was ultimately firm enough in favor of the change to turn it into a major bargaining chip, the sources said. The league and the National Basketball Players Association have stopped discussions about lowering the minimum age for players amid their negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
