I picked 30 years ago because I wanted to include Wayman.
Again, that's hardly relevant when you're trying to attribute causation to a rule that was put in place in the 2005 NBA collective bargaining agreement.
If I picked 20 or 40, the results are similar.
No, they're not.
That list is not as impressive as 30 years ago, but it still obliterates the best of today in college basketball.
That has nothing to do with the one-and-done rule.
Your argument was about the effect of the one-and-done rule. You're implying that the pool of talent in college basketball in 2013 would somehow be comparable to what it was in 1983 if not for the one-and-done rule. Attributing the talent disparity between those two years to the one-and-done rule ignores two major things:
1) The number of elite players varies greatly from one class to the next (and subsequently from one four-year block to the next. 1983 was an aberration.
2) Most elite players were leaving college early or bypassing it altogether at a prolific rate prior to the rule (this is the cause of the one-and-done rule, not the effect of it!). In other words, the pool of top-level college talent was already being depleted at as high, if not higher, of a rate than it is with the one-and-done rule in place. Forcing the next generation of Kobe Bryants and LeBron Jameses to go to college for a year instead of bypassing it altogether isn't killing the talent level of college basketball.
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30 years ago
Hall of Famers that played in college in 1982-83:
Ralph Sampson (Sr)
Clyde Drexler (Jr)
Hakeem Olajuwon (So)
Michael Jordan (So)
Charles Barkley (So)
John Stockton (Jr)
Patrick Ewing (So)
Chris Mullin (So)
Karl Malone (Fr)
Joe Dumars (So)
Non-Hall of Fame players that made multiple All-NBA teams:
Mark Price (Fr) (4x All-NBA)
Hall of Famers that would have been in college in 1982-83 had they not left early:
James Worthy
Dominique Wilkins
Isiah Thomas
That's 10 Hall of Famers that actually played college ball that year, or a total of 13 if everyone played four years. That is highly unusual, as you will see.
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20 years ago
No one that played college ball in 1992-93 is in the Hall of Fame yet, but
here is the list of players that made multiple All-NBA teams:
Chris Webber (So) (5x All-NBA)
Anfernee Hardaway (Jr)
Vin Baker (Sr)
Jason Kidd (Fr)
Grant Hill (Jr)
Steve Nash (Fr)
Multiple All-NBA team players that would have been in college in 1992-93 had they not left early:
Shaq
That's four potential Hall of Famers that actually played college ball that year, or a total of five if everyone played four years. That's nowhere close to the numbers for 1982-83.
This is more than a decade before the one-and-done rule and two years before Kevin Garnett ignites the prep-to-pros movement, so you can't make the one-and-done rule your scapegoat for this talent drop.
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10 years ago
No one that played college ball in 2002-03 is in the Hall of Fame yet, but
here is the list of players that made multiple All-NBA teams:
Carmelo Anthony (Fr)
Chris Bosh (Fr)
Dwyane Wade (Jr)
Deron Williams (Fr)
Brandon Roy (Fr)
Multiple All-NBA team players that would have been in college in 2002-03 had they not left early/bypassed college:
Gilbert Arenas
Amar'e Stoudemire
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2013
Here is the list of drafted players that would be playing college basketball this season if everyone stayed four years:
John Wall
Derrick Favors
DeMarcus Cousins
Xavier Henry
Eric Bledsoe
Avery Bradley
Daniel Orton
Hassan Whiteside
Lance Stephenson
Kyrie Irving
Derrick Williams
Enes Kanter
Tristan Thompson
Brandon Knight
Alec Burks
Kawhi Leonard
Tobias Harris
Jordan Hamilton
Cory Joseph
Tyler Honeycutt
Jordan Williams
Darius Morris
Josh Selby
Every non-senior, non-international player in the
2012 draft and obviously everyone actually playing in college this year
So back to my first point:
1) The number of elite players varies greatly from one class to the next (and subsequently from one four-year block to the next
Look at the list of 2013-eligible players and consider this: if everyone played four years of college ball, how many future Hall of Famers do you think are playing in 2013? We're not fortune-tellers, and there may be a few surprises, but no reasonable person can name 10-13 of them that are potential Hall of Famers.
And back to my second point:
2) Most elite players were leaving college early or bypassing it altogether at a prolific rate prior to the rule
How many of these players do you think would have stayed in college longer than they did if the NBA had never established the one-and-done rule? How many of them would have skipped college altogether?
Making the one-and-done rule a scapegoat ignores the drastic changes in the basketball landscape in the last 30 years.
, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, and Ralph Sampson.
