I generally understand the process for the teams’ draft order, but clueless about the players’ side. Like how are players selected for the drafting list, are professional players with expired contracts eligible for that list, can teams just sign contracts with players before or without going through the draft etc.?
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The drafts are technically “amateur drafts”. Once a player signs their pro contract and joins their union they are no longer considered an amateur and ineligible for the draft. The only main requirement for both drafts is how long you’ve been out of high school. For the NFL it’s 3 years and for the NBA it’s 1 year. The NBA recently stopped high school players from declaring for the draft. If you meet those requirements, you fill out some paperwork to the leagues and they verify your eligibility. If you’re drafted but you don’t want to sign with the team that drafted you, you would have to sit out the year and re-apply for the following years draft. That rarely ever happens though because the cost would be too high for the player.
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