The NBA Draft day reignited

You would think that never playing basketball in middle school, high school, and college, would restrict you from certain events in life, such as the NBA Draft. There are people who have played basketball their whole lives, who have been restricted from the NBA Draft for various reasons.

Seemingly, thanks to a loophole in the paperwork, that is not the case. Jordan Haber is a lifelong Miami Heat fan and the 21-year-old recently decided to read the very complicated legal documents around draft eligibility, and he filled out some paperwork. Had you been with me, I’d be telling you how much this random dude reignited an otherwise routine NBA draft day.

“I am now Jordan Haber, member of the 2023 NBA draft class, uh, soon to be undrafted class,” Haber said in a May 18 TikTok video. That video now has 3.1 million views. 

Haber’s route to the NBA Draft

After having a few viral videos, Haber decided that he does not necessarily want to do that for a living and with a bit of time on his hands before heading to law school in the fall, he began looking through the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and he spotted something in the language that he thought could put him into the draft.

“You really have a three-month, four-month window to really do this,” Haber said. “And it’s because of that window, not many people are going to think to do it because they think, oh it’s a waste of time, there’s some paperwork to fill out. And it’s what it really is.”

Having been told by all of his friends that it will not work, he emailed the NBA with all of his documentation and found out that he is indeed eligible.

The 30 NBA teams received a memo with the names of everyone in the draft, almost all of which are verified basketball players. Haber is not on that list, he is on a list of 18 names whose category is called ‘unknown individuals’. In any case, this year’s edition was reignited by Haber’s smarty pants!

Day 18 of the #AfroBloggers #WinterABC2023 blogging festival.