The NBA draft pick who chose college ball over the NBA: A New Trend
It's a headline that's sure to grab your attention: an NBA draft pick deciding to walk away from the professional league and play college ball instead. But this isn't just any draft pick. It's James Nnaji, a 7-foot Nigerian center who was drafted 31st in 2023, traded twice, and never logged a single NBA minute except for a handful of summer league games. Instead, he continued to play professionally in Europe after being drafted, but has now switched gears and is committed to Baylor University.
The 21-year-old can play immediately and has four years of eligibility. Nnaji makes his debut on Jan. 3 against TCU and is poised to shake up the Big 12. This is part of a growing trend of former pros boomeranging back to college ball, and it's the latest chapter in the Name Image Likeness (NIL) renaissance era that has turned the NCAA into a semi-pro league with better payouts optimized for athletes who major in monetization.
If you thought college was still the domain of frat parties, lousy dining-hall pizza, and people who think 8 a.m. classes build character, think again. It's now Plan B for NBA hopefuls who need a reboot. College athletics has morphed into the sports world's "Where Are They Now?" episode nobody asked for, and the storylines only get more unhinged as time moves along.
Forget one-and-done in the NIL era. The hot new trend is players swimming upstream like salmon with endorsement deals. NIL money combined with NCAA rule loosening has made it possible for former pros to moonlight as college athletes, so long as they remain within the five-year post-high-school window. One year pro, then back to class. It's like taking a gap year after you've already gone pro.
Nnaji is not alone. His decision puts a spotlight on an increasing number of professional basketball players choosing to play in the NCAA. In 2025, after two seasons with G League Ignite and the Delaware Blue Coats, Thierry Darlan became Santa Clara's first ex-G Leaguer to play college ball. He has two years of NCAA eligibility. London Johnson is another heavily recruited former high school player who skipped the NCAA, spent years grinding in the Ignite system and in the G League, and has committed to Louisville with two years of eligibility. Toni Bilic, a versatile forward who can play multiple spots on the perimeter and in the frontcourt, crossed the Atlantic leaving multiple seasons of professional basketball in Croatia to join Illinois midseason and just in time for Big Ten play.
In perhaps the most dramatic of plot twists, Lucas Langarita shut down his Spanish pro career, hopped on a plane, and joined Utah midseason with immediate eligibility. But not everyone is happy with this trend. Tom Izzo, who has been the head coach at Michigan State for decades and is one of the most influential voices in college basketball, recently blasted the NCAA for allowing former NBA G League players to return to college basketball. He called the situation "ridiculous" and "embarrassing." Izzo is not alone. Bill Self, the longtime head coach at Kansas, admitted that the landscape is so chaotic that his staff might eventually "recruit one (a former pro) before it is all said and done." Self joked he thought teams could soon "recruit straight from NBA teams," highlighting how nonsensical and unregulated the NCAA is.
So, what does this mean for the future of college basketball? Will there ever be another Fab Five class? Give it time, and someone will hire an NBA liaison whose entire portfolio is "eligible returnees." Who needs the grad-transfer portal and its ever-revolving carousel when you can simply buy out a forward from Europe and enjoy a midseason delivery of a ready-made starter? Who needs March Madness when we have November-from-Pro-Madness?
