{"id":789349,"date":"2026-07-28T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/789349\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T13:26:08","slug":"lebron-james-rethinking-his-legacy-of-prep-to-nba-in-world-of-nil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/789349\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James: Rethinking His Legacy of Prep to NBA in World of NIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLeBron James<\/a>\u00a0signing<\/a>\u00a0with the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> for what will be his record-breaking 24th NBA season is a reminder of how different the sport was when his career began, when he launched straight from high school to the pros in 2003.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was nearly two decades before college athletes, let alone high school basketball players, could sign NIL deals without forfeiting their eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe idea that schools might directly pay college athletes, whose jerseys sometimes generated millions of dollars in sales, through a revenue-sharing model would have been scoffed at in 2003.<\/p>\n

\n\tFurther, the notion of a transfer portal, allowing college athletes to move an unlimited number of times in pursuit of more NIL money offered by programs, would have seemed unrealistic and harmful to higher education.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack then, high school and college athletes were amateurs, even as their labor and visibility fueled a billion-dollar industry that enriched coaches, athletic directors, staff, television networks and sneaker companies.<\/p>\n

\n\tJames, 41, is the lone remaining player to have made the jump directly from high school to the NBA. The league, through an eligibility rule bargained with the NBPA, closed the door to high schoolers starting with the 2006 NBA Draft<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBetween 1975 and 2005, 40 players made that leap, including James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Tracy McGrady, Tyson Chandler, Amar\u2019e Stoudemire, Al Jefferson, Andrew Bynum, Jermaine O\u2019Neal and Rashard Lewis, all of whom were NBA All-Stars or made an All-NBA team. Prior to 1975, two other future NBA All-Stars, Spencer Haywood and Moses Malone, went directly from high school to the rival ABA.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the early 2000s, however, some influential observers believed high schoolers would be better off through maturing in college before entering the NBA.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf these kids have the ability to get a little more maturity, a little more coaching, a little bit more life experience overall,\u201d then-commissioner David Stern said in 2001, \u201cthat\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStriking a similar chord that year, Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson said of prep-to-pro players, \u201cIt\u2019s not good for the league, yet we continue to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThose comments might seem a bit paternalistic in 2026, where children and teen influencers are \u201cpros\u201d long before college.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe professional landscape for basketball has also changed a great deal since the Cleveland Cavaliers selected James with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. While the NBA\u2019s eligibility rule forecloses the chance for players to jump directly from high school to the league, some have still pursued a professional route without meal plans, dorms and the rest of the college experience.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat has long been true for international players, many of whom have already been pros for years. Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Don\u010di\u0107, for example,\u00a0turned pro at 13<\/a>\u00a0and was 19 years old when the Atlanta Hawks made him the third overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. Restricting entry until a prescribed period after high school is a convention largely unique to U.S. leagues, with the NBA, WNBA and NFL employing such schemes, and MLB\u00a0seeking to end<\/a>\u00a0high school athlete eligibility in its next CBA with the MLBPA.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven with direct entry to the NBA blocked, some U.S. basketball players have taken a pro path to the association. Several, including Jalen Green, Scoot Henderson and Jonathan Kuminga, played professionally in the G League for a year before being drafted by NBA teams. LaMelo Ball played in three overseas professional leagues before being selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2020 NBA Draft, and Darius Bazley spent a year as an intern for New Balance before being drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 2019 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

\n\tFast forward to 2026. With NIL and revenue sharing now possible, a basketball player can earn millions of dollars while still in college. AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, reportedly earned\u00a0about $7 million<\/a>\u00a0in NIL during his lone season at BYU. According to the\u00a0New York Times, Florida big man Thomas Haugh will earn over $10 million this season,\u00a0more than $6 million<\/a>\u00a0above what James will make for the 76ers.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven some high school basketball players are earning six and seven figures through NIL deals. Major sneaker brands have actively signed high school players, including Adidas, which signed\u00a0Darryn Peterson<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 before he became the No. 2 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, and Nike, which signed\u00a0Tyran Stokes<\/a>\u00a0last year. Forty-five of the 50 states\u00a0allow<\/a>\u00a0high school athletes to sign NIL deals without forfeiting their eligibility.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor a long time, there was talk of high school basketball players suing the NBA over its eligibility rule. I wrote about that topic\u00a0for a law review<\/a>\u00a0while I was a law student, and that publication played a key role in my becoming an attorney for then-Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett\u00a0in his lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against the NFL over its eligibility rule.<\/p>\n

\n\tLegally, the NBA\u2019s rule would be extremely difficult to challenge, because it has been collectively bargained with a union. But even without that hurdle, the incentive to sue has diminished now that basketball players can earn millions of dollars years before going to the NBA.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NIL and revenue-sharing era has fundamentally changed the legal and business calculus for pro leagues\u2019 eligibility rules. Leagues like the NBA and NFL can continue to rely on the lower-level sports associations to develop players\u2019 skills, talents and athleticism at no cost to team owners. The difference now is that those same players can be paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James\u00a0signing\u00a0with the Philadelphia 76ers for what will be his record-breaking 24th NBA season is a reminder of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[3013,355,13329,2113,99],"class_list":["post-789349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}