<P> The NBA high school draftees are players who have been drafted to the National Basketball Association (NBA) straight out of high school without playing basketball at the collegiate level . The process of jumping directly from high school to the professional level is also known as going prep - to - pro . Since 2006, the practice of drafting high school players has been prohibited by the new collective bargaining agreement, which requires that players who entered the draft be 19 years of age and at least one year removed from high school . Contrary to popular belief, the player does not have to play at least a year in college basketball, as the player can choose to instead play in another professional league (like the NBA G League or especially somewhere overseas) like Brandon Jennings or Emmanuel Mudiay in Italy and China respectively, simply take the year off, such as the case with Mitchell Robinson, or even hold themselves back a year in high school before declaring for the draft, like with Satnam Singh Bhamara or Thon Maker . </P> <P> The NBA has long had a preference for players who played basketball at the collegiate level; the vast majority of players to play in the NBA have had college experience . However, there have been numerous notable players who attended high school in the United States and then jumped directly to the NBA without playing college basketball . </P> <P> In the early years of the NBA draft, a player had to finish his four - year college eligibility to be eligible for selection . Reggie Harding, who had graduated from high school but did not enroll in a college, became the first player drafted out of high school when the Detroit Pistons selected him in the fourth round of the 1962 draft . However, the NBA rules at that time prohibited a high school player to play in the league until one year after his high school class graduated . Thus, he spent a year playing in a minor basketball league before he was drafted again in the 1963 draft by the Pistons . He finally entered the league in the 1963--64 season and played four seasons in the NBA and American Basketball Association (ABA). </P> <P> In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court decision Haywood v. National Basketball Association ruled, 7--2 against the National Basketball Association's requirement that a player must wait four years after high school graduation (which in most cases was spent playing in college) before turning professional . This ruling allowed players to enter the NBA Draft without four years of college, provided they could give evidence of hardship to the NBA office . </P>

Who was the first nba player straight out of high school