Rockets Daryl Morey wants high schoolers to enter NBA again

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey would like for players to be able to enter the NBA directly out of high school, as they were once allowed to do.

Not too long ago, the NBA once allowed players to enter the league directly out of high school. Many of the league’s greatest players bypassed college, such as Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant. Former Houston Rockets stars Tracy McGrady and Moses Malone also made the jump from high school to the NBA.

The league has since disallowed players from entering the NBA draft out of high school, which has led to the one-and-done movement in college. This has drawn the ire of many college coaches, as their jobs have become more difficult, due to the constant re-shuffling of players.

This has also led to the frustration of others, as one could argue that this scholarship money could potentially go to other students who have intentions of graduating. Although the NBA doesn’t allow players to enter the draft directly out of high school, they are allowing players to bypass college and go to the G-League, which is a bit similar.

We’ve seen several of the nation’s top high school players enter the G-League instead of going to college, which gives them exposure to the league’s coaching, while also paying them to play. But Houston Rockets general manager would like for players to be able to enter the draft as well.

Morey was on The Sean Salisbury Show on SportsTalk 790 and stated his claim.

“We’ll see how that comes out but I generally believe in people being able to choose where they want to go. But that’s just a general belief.”

Morey made sure to make it known that he was just sharing his general beliefs and he was simply answering a question that was asked, but his stance can be implied here. It’ll be interesting to see if the G-League’s clause culminates in the NBA reverting back to allowing players to join directly out of high school, for a number of reasons.

If that does in fact happen, it would seem like the G-League would take a major hit, depending on how successful it becomes as a result of having the nation’s best prep players. It’s also possible that league commissioner Adam Silver changes his stance if not enough players decide to bypass college for the G-League. One of the major downsides of allowing high school players to enter the NBA is that many of them don’t pan out, which has often resulted in the death of their NBA career.

Morey is right though in that we’ll have to see how that goes.