Since the news broke on Christmas Eve that 21-year-old James Nnaji, the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, had enrolled at Baylor, a collection of high-profile college basketball coaches have expressed their growing frustration toward the lack of appropriate NCAA regulation in the sport and, as a result, the blurred line between pro and college hoops.
NCAA president Charlie Baker tried to make that line clearer Tuesday. In a statement he posted to X, Baker clarified that the NCAA “has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract).”
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Nnaji, a 7-foot center from Makurdi, Nigeria, who could provide relief to an injury-riddled Baylor squad as early as this weekend, never signed an NBA contract. The Detroit Pistons drafted him, but his rights were traded to the Charlotte Hornets on draft day and once more in 2024 to the New York Knicks as part of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade.
Although Nnaji played in NBA Summer League games for the Hornets and Knicks, as recently as this year for the Knicks, he never appeared in an NBA regular-season game.
Here’s Baker’s full statement, which arrives in the wake of Arkansas’ John Calipari pleading for the NCAA to explain its decision to grant Nnaji four years of eligibility, UConn’s Dan Hurley clamoring for guidelines and rules and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo saying “shame on the NCAA”:
“The NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract),” Baker wrote.
“As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising discretion in applying the actual and necessary expenses bylaw to ensure that prospective student-athletes with experience in American basketball leagues are not at a disadvantage compared to their international counterparts.
“Rules have long permitted schools to enroll and play individuals with no prior collegiate experience midyear. While the NCAA has prevailed on the vast majority of eligibility-related lawsuits, recent outlier decisions enjoining the NCAA on a nationwide basis from enforcing rules that have been on the books for decades — without even having a trial — are wildly destabilizing. I will be working with DI leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball from these misguided attempts to destroy this American institution.”
So there it is, a line in the sand.
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Time will tell if players and lawyers attempt to challenge it in court.
Baylor plays Saturday on the road against TCU. Nnaji, who had been in the FC Barcelona organization since 2020, will be eligible.
He’s the first former draft pick to be cleared to play in men’s college basketball.
It’s important to note, though, that Thierry Darlan and London Johnson, two former G League guards, committed to colleges this fall.
Darlan has already been playing for Santa Clara. Johnson has joined Louisville but is expected to redshirt and make his college debut during the 2026-27 season.
