<P> The NBA draft is an annual event in which the 30 franchises in the National Basketball Association select new players for their teams . Eligibility rules for prospective players have changed several times during the history of the league . No player may sign with the NBA until they are 19 years or older . The rule has produced one - and - done players that play college basketball for one year before declaring for the draft . </P> <P> In the earliest days of the NBA, three players entered the NBA without having played in college (although one of them did not enter the league until he was 39 years old). However, the league eventually established a rule that "a player could not make himself available" for the draft until two years after his high school graduation . </P>

Do you have to go to college to play nba