If you haven’t seen collegiate athletics turning into little more than a minor league playing field for top professional talent, then you probably haven’t been paying attention. Somehow the Minnesota Timberwolves are wrapped up in a truly wild situation.
Cardale Jones laughed off playing school years ago, but the money making machine that is top college athletics has long since left the station.
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Now we’ve officially seen it all with top-tier professional talent going to school in order to reset a payday, and earn some extra money while doing it. Baylor pulled off quite the power move in securing an NBA talent once involved in the Minnesota Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns trade.
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James Nnaji goes from NBA back to college after MN Timberwolves trade
The Minnesota Timberwolves have been involved in some pretty historic trades in recent memory. Their involvement in the deal that moved Kevin Durant was the biggest swap in NBA history. Their involved in the deal that sent Karl-Anthony Towns may now be among the greatest changes to the basketball landscape.
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Nigerian James Nnaji was drafted in 2023 by the Detroit Pistons with the 31st overall pick. He then was traded immediately to Charlotte, and his draft rights were sent to the New York Knicks in the Towns trade. Now, having participated in NBA Summer League, but never in the regular season, he’ll add a college basketball reference page AFTER having one for the pros.
After not appearing in an NBA regular-season game, Nnaiji continued his professional career overseas, most recently playing for FC Barcelona in the Spanish Liga ACB and the EuroLeague before mutually parting ways with the team in August.
Earlier this year, Nnaji appeared in NBA Summer League with the Knicks, averaging 3.2 points and 3.6 rebounds across five games. Nnaji was previously a free agent before landing at Baylor. He joins a Bears’ team that has been hit hard by injuries, particularly in the frontcourt.
On3’s Joe Tipton has reported that Nnaji has signed with Scott Drew’s Baylor Bears and has been granted four years of eligibility by the NCAA. Now 21 years old, he’ll have the opportunity to face elite stateside competition before assumedly returning to the NBA ranks.
That is quite a wild can of worms and, likely with his draft rights sticking to the Knicks, he’ll effectively be a minor league player rented by Baylor. It stands to reason that Nnaji was able to secure NIL (name, image, likeness) funds, and he has already been deemed worthy of an NBA draft pick.
The logistics of sending players back and forth between the professional and amateur ranks are murky. This would seem to water down the impact of G League development, or that taking place overseas. It also opens a door for other draft picks to return for college action so long as they haven’t seen regular season run.
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NCAA sports, and the governing body as a whole, have operated in some questionable gray areas for quite some time. The more money that gets funneled into the sport won’t make it more ethical or less corrput.
Would MN Timberwolves want this for Rocco Zikarsky?
Similarly to Nnaji, Rocco Zikarsky was a second round pick for the Minnesota Twins. He played in the preseason and got NBA G League action. Nnaji never signed a standard NBA contract, which is unlike Zikarsky. However, if this was on the table, maybe that wouldn’t have been the desired outcome.
Zikarsky is just 19 years old and the Australian will need a significant amount of time to develop and acclimate to the professional level. It’s hard to think that playing at an elite NCAA school wouldn’t have provided a level of benefit to him.
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The Iowa Wolves have seen 14 games from Zikarsky in the G League. He has averaged 12.8 points per game in just over 20 minutes per contest. Zikarsky is shooting 52.9% from the floor, and 46.2% from deep.
At any rate, how both the NCAA and NBA handle a door that Nnaji has opened going forward remains to be seen. This will be a situation to monitor.
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