Kevin Garnett is one of the more famous players to jump from high school to the NBA. He made the jump at a time where it was still considered rare for prospects and only something once-in-a-generation talents could succeed doing. Of course, 10 years later it was so common the NBA decided they had to make a rule against it.
In a Q&A with Bleacher Report, Garnett was asked about the possibility of the one-and-done rule coming to an end. He's one of the more famous to do it so it's expected he'd have an opinion on the topic. Surprisingly, he's not very optimistic about the future of the rule.
No, I don't see the rule changing. And if I do see the rule changing, the rule is going to be changed not for the betterment of college [players]. I think they would try to get the kids to stay a little longer.
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They said it was bad for business, but they're making money on all these young guys. No one's talking about that part of it. No one wants to speak about the—I don't want to call it bullying, but it is a bit of a monopoly when you set the structure up that you got to take a certain path.
This is a very negative approach to the future of a rule that is one of basketball's most controversial. It's not a secret that Adam Silver wants to do away with it, but rumors are that this could mean the return of high school players being able to make that jump to the NBA. However, it's also known that Silver is a proponent of players staying in college longer for maturity and NBA readiness reasons.
It's disappointing that Garnett feels a rule change would be made for college more than the NBA, but there's never been anything to give him hope it wouldn't be like that. Even with rumors of high school players being allowed to make the jump to the NBA again, there's still the other side where those who can't would have to stay in college even longer. That sounds a lot like what Garnett is saying.
