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>>One high-major coach who had a player enter said this: “He’s just putting his name in because it’s the cool thing to do.”>>
Some of you on the younger end may not know this, but back in the day, the NBA didn't draft underclassmen. After Spencer Haywood successfully sued them, the league adopted a policy that guys could demonstrate "financial hardship" and apply for early entry into the league. "Hardship" quickly became "I (think) I can play ball at that level.
Meanwhile, the league draft used to be 10 rounds, up through the mid-80's. No way any team was going to bring on 10 new guys, and I think the later round draft choices were pretty off-the-cuff.
So when I was in college (late 70's) a guy who didn't play college ball and maybe even hadn't played high school ball dropped his name in as a hardship case. He was from a school with a high caliber hoops program, so he got drafted, sight unseen. I can't find the guy's name, but he can always say he was drafted in the NBA.
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