2010 NBA Draft - Eligibility Rules

Eligibility Rules

The basic eligibility rules for the draft are:

• All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players eligible for the 2010 draft must be born on or before December 31, 1991.
• Any player who is not an "international player", as defined in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the league and its players union, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class. The CBA defines "international players" as players who permanently resided outside the U.S. for three years prior to the draft, did not complete high school in the U.S., and have never enrolled at a U.S. college or university.

The basic requirement for automatic eligibility for a U.S. player is the completion of his college eligibility. Players who meet the CBA definition of "international players" are automatically eligible if their 22nd birthday falls during or before the calendar year of the draft (i.e., born on or before December 31, 1988). U.S. players who were at least one year removed from their high school graduation and have played professionally with a team outside the NBA (either top-level basketball in another country, or minor-league basketball in North America) were also automatically eligible. Former high school player Latavious Williams meets these criteria, having graduated high school in 2009, skipped college basketball and then played professional basketball in NBA D-League.

A player who is not automatically eligible must declare his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 60 days before the draft. For the 2010 draft, this date fell on April 25. Under NCAA rules that take effect with this draft, they only had until May 8 to withdraw from the draft and maintain their college eligibility. Previously, players who declared for the draft could withdraw as late as 10 days before the draft (the withdrawal deadline under the CBA) and still maintain college eligibility. This year, a total of 80 collegiate players and 23 international players declared as early entry candidates. At the withdrawal deadline, 48 early entry candidates withdrew from the draft, leaving 50 collegiate players and 5 international players as the early entry candidates for the draft.

A player who has hired an agent will forfeit his remaining college eligibility, regardless of whether he is drafted. Also, while the CBA allows a player to withdraw from the draft twice, the NCAA mandates that a player who has declared twice loses his college eligibility. This second provision affected Mac Koshwal, Gani Lawal, and Patrick Patterson, all of whom declared for and withdrew from the 2009 draft.

This draft was expected to see an unusual influx of underclassmen, even compared with recent years, for reasons explained by ESPN.com columnist Eamonn Brennan in an April 2010 piece: