WITH the WNBA quickly growing in reputation, it could be time to try altering a few of the league’s guidelines.

Amongst these guidelines that wants a serious change is the WNBA‘s draft eligibility.

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As issues at present stand, the WNBA has just a few easy guidelines concerning a girls’s basketball participant’s draft eligibility.

In response to the WNBA, a participant must fulfill these situations with a purpose to enter the draft:

• Be a graduating senior OR flip 22 years outdated in 2025 with a purpose to decide into the 2025 WNBA Draft
• Worldwide gamers can enter the draft in the event that they flip 22 years outdated in 2025

This requirement to graduate from faculty or flip 22 years outdated has girls’s basketball gamers lacking a few of their prime years for additional time in faculty.

Take a look at the NBA for instance. Males’s gamers solely have to finish one 12 months out of highschool earlier than they will enter the NBA Draft.

Which means star freshmen like Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Rutgers’ Dylan Harper can enter the draft after having one breakout season.

In the meantime, a few of the prime stars in girls’s faculty basketball are trapped for a number of years and run the danger of getting injured earlier than they will get drafted.

The largest instance of a participant who is completely balling out however has no draft eligibility is USC’s Juju Watkins.

Watkins was unbelievable as a freshman, averaging 27.1 factors, 7.3 rebounds, and three.3 assists per recreation.

Nevertheless, she could not parlay that particular season right into a excessive WNBA Draft choice.

This 12 months, Watkins is having one other superb season. She is averaging 24.3 factors, 6.9 rebounds, and three.6 assists per recreation.

Nonetheless, she can’t enter the WNBA Draft after this season.

Watkins must play two extra years in faculty earlier than she will be able to even be thought of as a draft prospect within the WNBA.

One other prime instance of the draft eligibility being too lengthy is UConn’s Paige Buckers.

Bueckers was an unbelievable participant as a freshman, averaging 20.0 factors, 4.9 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per recreation within the 2020-21 season.

WNBA All-Star rosters

THE 2024 WNBA All-Star recreation rosters have been introduced, with Crew WNBA set to face Crew USA on July 20.

Crew WNBA:

• DeWanna Bonner – Connecticut Solar
• Aliyah Boston – Indiana Fever
• Caitlin Clark – Indiana Fever
• Allisha Grey – Atlanta Dream
• Dearica Hamby – Los Angeles Sparks
• Brionna Jones – Connecticut Solar
• Jonquel Jones – New York Liberty
• Kayla McBride – Minnesota Lynx
• Kelsey Mitchell – Indiana Fever
• Arike Ogunbowale – Dallas Wings
• Nneka Ogwumike – Seattle Storm
• Angel Reese – Chicago Sky

Crew USA:

• Napheesa Collier – Minnesota Lynx
• Kahleah Copper – Phoenix Mercury
• Chelsea Grey – Las Vegas Aces
• Brittney Griner – Phoenix Mercury
• Sabrina Ionescu – New York Liberty
• Jewell Loyd – Seattle Storm
• Kelsey Plum – Las Vegas Aces
• Breanna Stewart – New York Liberty
• Diana Taurasi – Phoenix Mercury
• Alyssa Thomas – Connecticut Solar
• A’ja Wilson – Las Vegas Aces
• Jackie Younger – Las Vegas Aces

Nevertheless, she suffered a devastating knee harm and missed the whole 2022-23 season.

Bueckers is now in her fifth faculty season after she wanted to play yet another to rebuild her draft inventory.

It appears unfair to the ladies’s basketball stars of the world that they’re compelled to abide by these strict requirements earlier than they enter the league.

There are solely 13 groups within the league, making it a lot more durable to interrupt into than the NBA.

Making gamers undergo all 4 years of faculty solely makes it more durable for them to interrupt into the league.

Maybe the WNBA ought to lower the draft age to twenty, or permit gamers to enter the league after two years in faculty as a substitute of 4.

One thing ought to change although, to permit the highest abilities of ladies’s basketball to reap the benefits of their expertise sooner.