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•John Wall Eligible for the 2009 draft?
A lot of people took note of a little nugget dropped by Chad Ford in his chat on ESPN.com today. It reads as follow:
…”There is some buzz that Wall believes he might be eligible for THIS year's draft. I've been doing some digging and will be filing a story later today. The short rub is this: Wall is a 5th year senior and depending on how you read the collective bargaining agreement, 5th year seniors are eligible for the draft as long as the turn 19 in the calander year (Wall does). The league is taking a wait and see approach. If he declares, they'll research and make a ruling. If he does declare and is ruled eligible (two big ifs) he's a Top 5 pick in this draft. Maybe Top 3.
This would be an incredibly important development, considering that Wall is likely the top NBA prospect in this high school class (although Derrick Favors also has a case), and he would immediately move into the top 5 of this draft if he were indeed deemed eligible.
To help us determine that, we went to the exact ruling in the CBA:
The player (A) is or will be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year in which the Draft is held, and (B) with respect to a player who is not an international player (defined below), at least one (1) NBA Season has elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school (or, if the player did not graduate from high school, since the graduation of the class with which the player would have graduated had he graduated from high school);
One important fact that needs to be resolved is: did John Wall graduate from high school? We made a quick call to our friend Dave Telep, widely considered the #1 expert in everything relating to high school basketball, who happens to based out of the same part of the country that John Wall is in Raleigh, North Carolina. Telep says that Wall “has not graduated from high school yet” due to the fact that he was “reclassified after transferring from Garner High School.” In Telep’s view, Wall “would not be eligible for this year’s draft, since his one year clock has not yet started, based on my interpretation of the rules at least.”
Our understanding is that Wall spent three years at Garner and then the last two at Word of God Christian Academy (not 4+1 as indicated by Ford), which means that he is not a traditional 5th year prep school player, who graduates from high school after four years and then transfers for a year at a University-Preparatory-type secondary school. Word of God Christian Academy is a regular K-12 school, not a prep school, and Wall has yet to receive his high school diploma, which he likely will.
There is an argument to be made that the “if the player did not graduate from high school” sentence refers to a player who has not YET graduated from high school, rather than a player who will NOT ever graduate, since Wall’s original high school class (2008) is in fact one year NBA season removed. But because Wall appears to be on course to graduate—unless he would decide to drop out of school in the next few days (something which could possibly his case)-- it appears unlikely (to us at least) that this rule would be interpreted that way, although an argument can certainly be made otherwise in court.
This is all moot, since it doesn’t appear that Wall has any interest in being a part of this draft class anyway, as Ford seemed to indicate by saying “Wall believes he might be eligible for THIS year's draft”
“There is absolutely no truth to that whatsoever,” Wall’s AAU coach Brian Clifton told us. “No merit at all. John hasn’t talked about it, his mother hasn’t talked about it, and I haven’t talked about it. Outside of the three of us, no one is in any position to speculate about that.”
When asked whether Wall may reconsider if he were indeed deemed eligible for this year’s draft, Clifton didn’t leave any doubt:
“That’s not a question, not a consideration at all. He is going to school, and that has been the plan all along.”
It’s interesting to see Clifton dismiss the NBA so quickly, since there is a decent chance Wall would be a top-3 pick, and he may even go #2 depending on who is drafting. Is he just being coy so as not to scare off any of the college coaches who are recruiting him? Billy Donovan and Florida became the 9th team on Wall’s list according to a recent report. People we’ve spoken to who are close to the situation think that its either NBA teams or an agent floating Wall’s name around as a means to lure him into the draft. He’ll be in New York City this week for the Jordan Brand Classic, so we’ll have a chance to discuss this matter further with him.
A lot of people took note of a little nugget dropped by Chad Ford in his chat on ESPN.com today. It reads as follow:
…”There is some buzz that Wall believes he might be eligible for THIS year's draft. I've been doing some digging and will be filing a story later today. The short rub is this: Wall is a 5th year senior and depending on how you read the collective bargaining agreement, 5th year seniors are eligible for the draft as long as the turn 19 in the calander year (Wall does). The league is taking a wait and see approach. If he declares, they'll research and make a ruling. If he does declare and is ruled eligible (two big ifs) he's a Top 5 pick in this draft. Maybe Top 3.
This would be an incredibly important development, considering that Wall is likely the top NBA prospect in this high school class (although Derrick Favors also has a case), and he would immediately move into the top 5 of this draft if he were indeed deemed eligible.
To help us determine that, we went to the exact ruling in the CBA:
The player (A) is or will be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year in which the Draft is held, and (B) with respect to a player who is not an international player (defined below), at least one (1) NBA Season has elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school (or, if the player did not graduate from high school, since the graduation of the class with which the player would have graduated had he graduated from high school);
One important fact that needs to be resolved is: did John Wall graduate from high school? We made a quick call to our friend Dave Telep, widely considered the #1 expert in everything relating to high school basketball, who happens to based out of the same part of the country that John Wall is in Raleigh, North Carolina. Telep says that Wall “has not graduated from high school yet” due to the fact that he was “reclassified after transferring from Garner High School.” In Telep’s view, Wall “would not be eligible for this year’s draft, since his one year clock has not yet started, based on my interpretation of the rules at least.”
Our understanding is that Wall spent three years at Garner and then the last two at Word of God Christian Academy (not 4+1 as indicated by Ford), which means that he is not a traditional 5th year prep school player, who graduates from high school after four years and then transfers for a year at a University-Preparatory-type secondary school. Word of God Christian Academy is a regular K-12 school, not a prep school, and Wall has yet to receive his high school diploma, which he likely will.
There is an argument to be made that the “if the player did not graduate from high school” sentence refers to a player who has not YET graduated from high school, rather than a player who will NOT ever graduate, since Wall’s original high school class (2008) is in fact one year NBA season removed. But because Wall appears to be on course to graduate—unless he would decide to drop out of school in the next few days (something which could possibly his case)-- it appears unlikely (to us at least) that this rule would be interpreted that way, although an argument can certainly be made otherwise in court.
This is all moot, since it doesn’t appear that Wall has any interest in being a part of this draft class anyway, as Ford seemed to indicate by saying “Wall believes he might be eligible for THIS year's draft”
“There is absolutely no truth to that whatsoever,” Wall’s AAU coach Brian Clifton told us. “No merit at all. John hasn’t talked about it, his mother hasn’t talked about it, and I haven’t talked about it. Outside of the three of us, no one is in any position to speculate about that.”
When asked whether Wall may reconsider if he were indeed deemed eligible for this year’s draft, Clifton didn’t leave any doubt:
“That’s not a question, not a consideration at all. He is going to school, and that has been the plan all along.”
It’s interesting to see Clifton dismiss the NBA so quickly, since there is a decent chance Wall would be a top-3 pick, and he may even go #2 depending on who is drafting. Is he just being coy so as not to scare off any of the college coaches who are recruiting him? Billy Donovan and Florida became the 9th team on Wall’s list according to a recent report. People we’ve spoken to who are close to the situation think that its either NBA teams or an agent floating Wall’s name around as a means to lure him into the draft. He’ll be in New York City this week for the Jordan Brand Classic, so we’ll have a chance to discuss this matter further with him.
