Top high school hoops player may be draft eligible next season

That's not true at all. He's been in this class for three years. This is his class. That's the reason why it's 19 and a year graduated from high school. If not, then all the kids who are 19 or even 20 because they were held back a grade could be drafted.
They made the rule the way it is so kids can't just be held back a grade and get drafted when they graduate. It's pretty explilcit. Doyle is wrong.

 

I'd be stunned if graduation from high school wasn't a requirement.

 

Graduation from high school is not a requirement. The rule states that you have to be 19 and a year removed from the graduation of your high school class. If you were a member of the class of 2006, it doesn't matter if you got your diploma or not, you'll be eligible for the draft in 2007. The question in Walker's case is, what class is he a member of? If he's used up 4 years of eligibility, it seems he could argue that he's a member of the class of '06. I don't know if he'd win that argument, but he might. The NBA might have to tighten up the language of the rule to prevent this kind of thing.

In any case, Doyel's not guilty of bad reporting. He raised this as a possibility, which is reasonable.

 

He can't argue he's class of 2006 if there was no way for him to complete the credits.

And, I'm sure he was not on target to academically be eligible for 2006 graduation.

 

Look, I don't know all the specifics of his case and neither do you. I'm just saying that by next June he'll be 19 and a year removed from high school eligibility. If he played as a HS freshman four years ago, as the HS association says he did, he could argue that his high school class graduated in '06 even though he did not. His situation might not be clearly covered by the eligibility rule.

 

I understand what you are saying. Just tossing my take on what the probability is.

 

Once he reclassified to the Class of 2007, he no longer was a member of the Class of 2006. There is a small argument there, but there's no way it has any legs. All it's going to do is create more of a circus around Walker and Mayo. If either of these kids succeeds in the NBA, it will be a testament to their focus and skills. The way their families, the shoe companies, the sketchy recruiting media, etc, etc, etc have exploited them is truly astounding.

If I were both of those guys, I'd probably drop out, go play in the D League or Europe and avoid all the fools like Clark Francis for the next year.

 

NBA says no.
Might SPLN have wanted to place a phone call on this?

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060711/SPT0301/607110362/1062/SPT