The NBA and its players association have reportedly agreed to significant changes in the new collective bargaining agreement that will have wide-ranging impacts on the NBA Draft and how much of a prospect’s medical information will be available to teams.
Citing a 91-page joint memo sent out by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, ESPN reported on Tuesday that the new CBA, among many changes, will require players invited to the NBA Draft Combine to not only attend but also to participate or they’ll be deemed ineligible to be selected “until the first subsequent draft for which the player attends and fully participates.” The requirements are expected to be enacted in 2024.
Participation among top prospects at the NBA Draft Combine has all but dissipated in recent years, likely spurring the changes to the new CBA. On top of declining to compete in the 5-on-5 portion of the annual combine, top prospects have increasingly declined to do drill work, measurements, interviews and in some cases opted to skip the event altogether. Because there has been no incentive to participate, top prospects frequently do not show up or show up and leave shortly thereafter without so much as speaking to teams or media.
Declining to participate in the combine by way of not competing, doing interviews or sharing medical information has in recent years been a way for agents to potentially use leverage to steer clients to certain destinations and away from others. However, the new changes will require participants to engage fully in most of the events the top prospects have mostly chosen to forgo, aside from scrimmages. Here’s more from ESPN:
Participation will include league medical examinations, sharing of medical history and biomechanical and functional movement testing, as well as strength and agility testing, shooting drills, performance testing and anthropometric measurements. Players will…
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