UK Sports Info

Today has brought about some new speculation on what decision John Wall will make.  I have read many many things, and UK fans are starting to do the negative dance again.  First let me say that Wall is still considering UK and if we pick apart every word he says then you will only frustrate yourself to death.  The whole deal is that we do not know what he is going to do, and he has a lot of options, and maybe we don’t even know what all of those options are.

In the chat with Chad Ford today the issue of John Wall going pro was brought up.  Here is how part of that went.

Mike, FL: Is John Wall the No. 1 pick in 2010 Draft. He was awesome at the
Hoop Summit game.

SportsNation Chad Ford: (2:12 PM ET ) He was awesome and he’ll compete
with Ed Davis and a few other freshmen for that. However, there is some
buzz that Wall believes he might be eligible for THIS year’s draft. I’ve
been doing some digging and will be filing a story later today. The short
rub is this: Wall is a 5th year senior and depending on how you read the
collective bargaining agreement, 5th year seniors are eligible for the
draft as long as the turn 19 in the calendar year (Wall does). The league
is taking a wait and see approach. If he declares, they’ll research and
make a ruling. If he does declare and is ruled eligible (two big ifs) he’s
a Top 5 pick in this draft. Maybe Top 3.”

Now, what we have to wonder from this, is whether or not he is considering this and if this would actually be possible according to the collective bargaining agreement.  The statement is as follows which is from the NBA Players Association website….

(a) No player may sign a Contract or play in the NBA unless he has been eligible for selection in at least one (1) NBA Draft. No player shall be eligible for selection in more than two (2) NBA Drafts.

(b) A player shall be eligible for selection in the first NBA Draft with respect to which he has satisfied all applicable requirements of Section 1(b)(i) below and one of the requirements of Section 1(b)(ii) below: (i) The player (A) is or will be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year in which the Draft is held, and (B) with respect to a player who is not an international player (defined below), at least one (1) NBA Season has elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school (or, if the player did not graduate from high school, since the graduation of the class with which the player would have graduated had he graduated from high school);

You can continue to read the rest of this here.

So, we have to ask ourselves if it is possible and are there any cracks in this agreement?  Sure there are, I am sure if you try hard enough you can get what you want.  Regardless of all of the rumors and speculation I think everyone needs to take a deep breath.

I have heard everything from Wall committed to Calipari last Saturday night after the Hoop Summit game to he is going pro, to he is going overseas and that he will end up in the ACC.  The one fact I can tell you is that he is considering a group of schools and he will have a shorter list for us soon.  Until then we will have to either be frustrated or just enjoy this ride.  If we really think about this Calipari has had just a couple of weeks to put all of this together, so we just need to hope for the best.