NBA draft picks took part in a college basketball game on Saturday for the first time in decades.
This player is James Nagy, who was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 31st overall pick in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft. After five years in Europe playing for FC Barcelona, he signed with Baylor University for inside help. This is the beginning of the four years of NCAA eligibility that are made possible by the increasingly blurred lines between the college and professional levels.
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Baylor’s signing of the 21-year-old was an unpopular move to say the least, and the Bears confirmed that on the road against TCU in Nagy’s first game. Wearing the No. 50 jersey that didn’t even have his name on it, he was greeted by loud boos.
The boos continued every time Nagy touched the ball, including when the 7-footer scored his first career point on a putback dunk midway through the first half.
In the whole game, Nagy came off the bench for 16 minutes and scored 5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 turnovers on 2 of 3 shots. Baylor lost to TCU 69-63, falling to 10-3.
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Najib, a native of Nigeria, began his organized basketball career in the Hungarian league before joining Barcelona in 2020. Since being drafted into the NBA, he has been loaned twice to teams in Spain and Turkey, while his NBA rights have been traded to the Charlotte Hornets and then the New York Knicks. He hasn’t played in the NBA yet.
Nagy is a professional basketball player by almost any definition in the world, but the NCAA allowed him to play for Baylor University. The decision angered many of the biggest names in college basketball, both because he had crossed a line and because of confusion about the ever-changing rulebook that allowed him to do so.
TCU head coach Jamie Dixon echoed the latter when speaking to reporters after the game:
“I wish we had rules and they were clarified before this year, but I said the other day, we’ve gotten rid of all those rules from the NCAA and now that we have the funding, we’re a professional league, we don’t have rules.
“Usually, the more money you get involved and become professional, there are more rules. We don’t have a cap, we don’t have a contract, we don’t have rules. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that’s the way it is. Every school has different rules and different interpretations.”
Baylor head coach Scott Drew defended the move, saying it puts his program “in the best position to succeed.” This scenario was foreshadowed a few months ago when the NCAA cleared former G League Ignite player Thierry Darlan to play for Santa Clara.
