Suns' Devin Booker thinks 'one-and-done' era will end at some point

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) settled a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement in their labor negotiations early Saturday morning. The tentative deal begins in the 2023-24 season, per ESPN.

Talks between the league and the union about lowering the league's draft age minimum from 19 to 18 to let American high school players to enter the draft were tabled in Friday's final discussions.

The "one-and-done" era for college basketball's top players will continue through at least this decade.

Three of the Phoenix Suns' starters Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Deandre Ayton were one-and-done players. Durant was drafted second overall by the Seattle Supersonics out of Texas in 2007. Booker was taken by the Suns as the 13th overall pick from Kentucky in 2015. Ayton was the Suns' first No. 1 overall selection from Arizona in 2018.

Booker spoke about the league and NBPA not lowering the age minimum after the Suns beat Denver at home on Friday.

"I think most kids are still finding their way out or they're not even going to college and their spending a year removed training somewhere at a prep school or something of that such," Booker said. "So with the NIL, I think that's a step forward. Those players are able to get paid now off their name and likeness, so that's really important. But we'll see. I think it will eventually get back to no college."

Booker's point about NIL (name, image, and likenesses) refers to how it has revolutionized college sports since it started in Sept. 2021. That was two years after California became the first state to pass its Fair Pay To Play Act to enable student-athletes to get paid from endorsement deals and merchandising. There are currently 32 states, including Arizona, that have ratified NIL laws.

Booker also referred to players who have gone overseas to play professionally immediately after graduating high school, or found alternative routes to prepare for the NBA.

LaMelo Ball, Shaedon Sharpe, MarJon Beauchamp stand as examples

The 2021 NBA Rookie of the Year LaMelo Ball played in Australia's NBL for one season before he was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets

Former Glendale Dream City Christian standouts Shaedon Sharpe and MarJon Beauchamp, were first-round picks out of Kentucky and the NBA's G League Ignite team, respectively, last June. Sharpe reclassified his high school senior status to join Kentucky halfway through the 2021-22 season. After Beauchamp's time at Dream City Christian, he trained for one year to prepare for the NBA in the San Francisco-based Stealth X Athletics program in 2019, then joined G League Ignite two years later.

"It's very different. They're great players, they're (veterans), they're superstars, so I'm learning everyday in just competing with them," Beauchamp said to The Republic about being a rookie among his teammates in practice, after Milwaukee beat Phoenix on March 14 .

"Sometimes I have moments where I do very good, and sometimes there's moments where they just kill me. But I get better from it, so I don't really look at it like that. I learn from (Bucks’ three-time All-Star) Khris Middleton who's the same position as me. I just watch everything he does because I'm gonna be in (his) position one day. ... I made the right decision."

Reasons the minimum age wasn't lowered in new CBA

First, the lucrative NIL deals that college athletes can generate toward millions of dollars.

Second, the NBA's developmental system offering elite high school players one pre-draft year with six-figure salaries and endorsement opportunities since 2019, as well as contracted compensation with the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program that's similar to the G League.

Third, there was a reported resistance among NBA team owners and executives about returning to scout high school players in local gymnasiums, no concessions from the NBPA on providing increased access to pre-draft player medical information and increased participation in various aspects of the draft combine.

Finally, NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio has been outspoken about veteran players on edge about losing their roster sports to 18-year-old rookies.

"We recognize that we really do need to make sure that we have the structure in place, if we're going to have people join the league at the age of 18," Tremaglio said during All-Star weekend in February.

"We also appreciate that there is a lot of benefit to really having veterans who can bring those 18-year-olds along. And so, certainly anything that we would even consider, to be quite honest, would have to include a component that would allow veterans to be a part of it as well."

The NBA raised its age minimum in 2005. That was 34 years after the U.S. Supreme Court forced the NBA into its "hardship rule" to let players be drafted out of high school and eradicate its former four-year rule after playing in college.

Other notable players who entered the NBA out of high school were LeBron James, Dwight Howard, as well as Hall of Famers Moses Malone, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett.

The last player Phoenix drafted out of high school was its former All-Star Amar'e Stoudemire in 2002.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Lowering NBA minimum age isn't in new CBA, but it could be next time