Argumentative Essay - Mendoza 1 Austin Mendoza Professor...

Mendoza 1
Austin Mendoza
Professor Whitaker
English 13815
Argumentative Essay: Prompt C
31 October 2017
One and Done
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has various rules that don’t make a whole lot
of sense. One of the more controversial rules that the NBA has in place is the one and done rule.
The rule states that “No player is allowed to enter the NBA draft until they are at least nineteen
years of age and are one year removed from high school.” According to NBA.com. For most
potential NBA prospects the obvious route to get to the league after they graduate high school is
to play basketball at the collegiate level for a year. NBA players such as Ben Simmons played
one season of college basketball but when their season was over they would drop out of college
and start training for the draft. Some players such as Russell Westbrook spent more than one year
playing college basketball and became superstars in the NBA because they were more developed
by the time they entered the league.
The one and done rule in the NBA should be expanded because one year in college is not
long enough for players to develop. There are two sides when it comes to this rule. One side
thinks that the rule should be expanded to two or more years removed from high school in order
to become eligible for the draft. The reasoning for this is that it has produced better talent such as
Michael Jordan. The other argues that the rule should be abolished altogether. Those who want
the rule to be abolished point to legends such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James who came into
the league straight out of high school.

Mendoza 2
Expanding the rule to at least two years removed from high school will help the league
talentwise. The extra year of playing college basketball under a college coach will help the
potential players to be better prepared to enter the league. The NBA is a much faster paced game
than college basketball, the players are all bigger and stronger. Most rookies entering the NBA
only spent one year playing college basketball and struggle in their first few seasons because the
rest of the players in the league are more experienced. There are a select few players that only
spent one year in college and became superstars when they entered the league like Anthony
Davis, Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony-Towns. Those types of players don’t come around
every day and it is very rare for a player that only spent one year in college to come into the
NBA and have immediate success.
Spending more than one year playing college basketball gives potential NBA players the
opportunity to learn and grow more before they enter the league. There are even some players
that spent all four years playing at the collegiate level and became stars in the NBA as soon as
they entered the league. The most notable players to spend all four years playing college
basketball in recent years include stars such as Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Damian
Lillard. The league executives do take the amount of time a player spent in college into