What To Know About Former Pro Basketball Players Getting College Eligibility

There has been a recent surge of former NBA G League players and international pros getting the green light to play college basketball around the country, sparking widespread debate on whether this should be allowed.

According to NCAA rules, basketball athletes can make a case for college eligibility if they maintain "amateur status" — five years or less removed from high school graduation; NCAA qualifiers out of high school; didn’t enter the NBA Draft (or did but never signed an NBA contract).

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo recently spoke out about this issue after Baylor received a commitment from James Nnaji, the 31st overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, on Christmas Eve. The 21-year-old Nnaji, a 7-foot center from Nigeria, was granted immediate eligibility as a midseason addition and will have four years of eligibility remaining. 

Nnaji never actually played in the NBA or the G League, the NBA's developmental league, but he did appear in five NBA Summer League Games for the New York Knicks in July and played professionally overseas last season. He was even part of the monster three-team trade that shipped Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks for Julius Randle to the Minnesota Timberwolves in October 2024; the trade also included Donte DiVincenzo and draft assets, including rights to Nnaji and a 2025 top-13-protected first-round pick from the Knicks via the Detroit Pistons.

"I thought I’d seen the worst — then Christmas came," Izzo said. "What happened just topped it. … Now we’re taking guys that were drafted in the NBA and everything? … If that’s what we’re going to, shame on the NCAA. Shame on the coaches, too, but shame on the NCAA because coaches are gonna do what they gotta do, I guess, but the NCAA is the one. 

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