The NBA has announced the full list of players that have signed for the NBA Draft 2026, taking place on June 23 and June 24 in New York, after the final possible date of the NBA Finals (between June 4 and June 20 at the latest). And this year, only 71 players have signed, the lowest number since 2003; in 2025 there were 106, and in 2021 there was a record of 363.
Why is that? The new NIL rules, the rights of college basketball players to retain rights for name, image, and likeness, which were introduced after 2021, means that often college basketball players get better contract deals with their universities than what they would in NBA, so many choose to stay at the NCAA for a few years longer.
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Despite the NIL rules, the vast majority of prospects signed for the NBA Draft 2026 come from the NCAA, with Eurohoops reporting that only 11 of those 71 players come from European leagues:
Sergio de Larrea (Valencia Basket)
Jack Kayil (ALBA Berlín)
Luigi Suigo (Mega Basket)
Alexandros Samodurov (Panathinaikos)
Bassala Bagayoko (Surne Bilbao)
Francesco Ferrari (Virtus Bologna)
Pavle Backo (Mega Basket)
Mohammad Amini (Nancy)
Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada (Nancy)
Vsevolod Ischenko (Lokomotiv)
But it is worth noting, as AS points out, that some European players will join the NBA through the North American college basketball leagues, instead of their own European leagues, because there's still a huge imbalance between even the top European leagues and the college basketball leagues in North America, with young players getting much more valuable contracts if they join North American universities.
Such is the case of Aday Mara, 21-year-old Spaniard who became NCAA champion and best player and previously played for Zaragoza Basket before joining the University of California, and is making the jump to the NBA next season.