The NCAA’s decision to grant immediate eligibility to James Nnaji, a former NBA Draft pick, marks a potentially transformative moment in the relationship between professional and college basketball.

Nnaji, a 7-foot, 21-year-old Nigerian-born center, has committed to Baylor University and received four years of NCAA eligibility, allowing him to play for the Bears beginning in the middle of the 2025–26 season. This ruling is unprecedented in modern college basketball and has sparked widespread confusion and criticism across the sport.

Nnaji was selected 31st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, initially by the Detroit Pistons, before his rights were traded to the Charlotte Hornets and later to the New York Knicks in a three-team deal involving Karl-Anthony Towns. Despite being drafted, Nnaji never signed an NBA contract and has not played in an NBA regular-season game. Instead, he has spent several years playing professionally overseas with clubs such as FC Barcelona, Merkezefendi, and Girona, and has also appeared in NBA Summer League games, most recently with the Knicks.

According to reports, the Knicks will retain Nnaji’s NBA rights while he plays at Baylor, effectively creating a situation likened to an NBA team “loaning” a drafted player to a college program. This has raised alarms that NBA teams could now draft prospects, stash them in college basketball, and continue to control their professional futures. Coaches, analysts, and fans reacted strongly, with UConn coach Dan Hurley and former Indiana coach Tom Crean publicly criticizing the NCAA’s lack of clarity and long-term planning. Media members such as Jeff Goodman and Zach Braziller described the decision as evidence that NCAA rules are being improvised without consistent standards.

Don’t be mad at the players , agents, brokers or coaches. Don’t be mad at the current people in charge.
If you’re upset go back and look at every “perfunctory “ committee that was formed to take a path of least resistance and who put them together and participated. Years ago.

— Tom Crean (@TomCrean) December 24, 2025

Santa Claus is delivering mid season acquisitions…this s*** is crazy!! 🤪

— Dan Hurley (@dhurley15) December 24, 2025

It’s hard to blame Scott Drew or any of the college coaches for this if it’s allowed by the NCAA.

But it’s become a complete joke now because there are no rules anymore.

It’s just “make it up as you go” now.

And where does it end? https://t.co/6pGKj8bZoT

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) December 24, 2025

Old enough to remember players being ruled ineligible for accepting a free meal from fans. Now, players can literally get drafted and come back to school. Just a mockery of the sport at this point.

— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) December 24, 2025

The controversy is amplified by the NCAA’s own bylaws, which state that a men’s basketball player may jeopardize eligibility by entering the NBA Draft and being drafted. The apparent loophole in Nnaji’s case centers on the fact that he never enrolled in college before being drafted and never signed an NBA contract. Because NCAA draft-related amateurism rules apply only after initial collegiate enrollment, Nnaji was deemed eligible despite years of professional experience overseas.

This decision follows a broader trend of the NCAA allowing former professional players, including ex–G League athletes, to compete in college basketball. With NIL compensation turning top NCAA programs into one of the most lucrative basketball environments in the world, the traditional definition of amateurism has eroded. Critics argue the Nnaji ruling sets a dangerous precedent, undermines the NCAA’s credibility, and could fundamentally reshape the pipeline between college basketball and the NBA.

Santa’s naughty list this year includes several sanctuary cities and states that allowed illegal immigrant criminals to roam their streets, many of whom went on to commit more egregious crimes.

Sanctuary cities and states adopt policies that prevent local police from notifying federal immigration authorities about the looming release of illegal immigrants from local jails. They also bar federal authorities from entering jails to interview illegal immigrant suspects.

The Trump administration has sued several sanctuary jurisdictions, including Minnesota, New York City, Boston, Illinois, and Los Angeles, over the policies.

These are some of the worst offenders.

New York City

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, local police in New York City released roughly 7,000 illegal immigrants from local jails without honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detainer requests to have them placed into federal custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

They account for nine homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous drugs offenses, 300 weapons offenses, and 207 sexual predatory offenses.

Mario Bustamante-Leiva, 49, the Chilean illegal immigrant accused of snatching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse in Washington, D.C., in April, was arrested in New York for a similar crime just a few weeks earlier — but they let him go with a desk appearance ticket and a court date, according to the New York Post.

He never showed up to that scheduled court date and bounced over to the nation’s capital to allegedly purse snatch the cabinet official.

In a separate example of the sanctuary’s consequences, the two Dominican illegal immigrants accused in the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in New York City in July both had rap sheets.

One of them, Christhian Aybar-Berroa, 22, was arrested by the NYPD eight times and released each time prior to the attack, according to the New York Post. He also had a deportation order from January 2023.

Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, also racked up several arrests in New York City, including for allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman and threatening to kill a fellow migrant with a machete, according to the New York Post.

He was also wanted on kidnapping and weapons charges out of Massachusetts, the outlet previously reported.

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Illinois

Authorities in Illinois have released more than 1,700 criminal illegal immigrants with ICE detainer requests from local jails since Inauguration Day, according to DHS.

The Trump administration commenced “Operation Midway Blitz” in September to target the sanctuary city of Chicago and arrest illegal immigrants released by local authorities.

ICE has current detainers lodged against roughly 4,000 illegal immigrants in state custody, according to DHS.

Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responded to the federal operation by creating “ICE-free zones” across the Windy City.

In October, local police were reportedly told to stand down from assisting Border Patrol agents, who “were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars” in Broadview, Illinois, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on X at the time.

Agents determined that one of the alleged attackers was “armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” forcing them to “fire defensive shots at an unarmed U.S. citizen,” according to McLaughlin.

Minnesota

When ICE descended on Minneapolis earlier this month, leaders in the sanctuary state were quick to side with illegal immigrants roaming the state.

Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the increased presence of federal immigration authorities by pledging to continue to refuse cooperation with ICE.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says he will not allow police officers to cooperate with ICE to get criminal illegal aliens off the streets.

FREY: “Officers will not coordinate with any federal agency that is doing immigration law enforcement work.” pic.twitter.com/zNLosBiKYw

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 8, 2025

Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who has likened ICE to “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo,” condemned the agency’s actions in his state.

The federal operation resulted in roughly 400 arrests of illegal immigrants.

Somali immigrant Abdimahat Bille Mohamed was let go as part of a plea agreement in two sexual assault cases earlier this year before he went on to allegedly rape a child and multiple adult women before allegedly kidnapping a woman and raping her, according to the Department of Justice, which has since charged him federally.

“This Somali national in Minnesota is charged with raping a minor and multiple adult women before being detained — only to be quickly released by a local court, after which he committed yet another rape. This horrific case illustrates how left-wing soft-on-crime policies and vetting failures put innocent people at dire risk. If Minnesota will not protect its own people, the Department of Justice will do it for them,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said of the case earlier this month.

Fairfax County, Virginia

Authorities in Fairfax County, Virginia, released Salvadoran migrant Marvin Morales-Ortez, 23, who allegedly went on to murder a man less than 24 hours later.

Morales-Ortez allegedly fatally shot a man inside his Reston, Virginia, home after he was released from a local jail by authorities who ignored a federal immigration detainer to hand him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to multiple reports.

Morales-Ortez crossed the southern border illegally in 2016, federal law enforcement sources recently told The Daily Wire.

An immigration judge dismissed his deportation case in 2022, effectively allowing him to stay in the country without any legal status, sources said.

He was also tagged as a suspected member of the violent MS-13 gang, according to ABC7.

Morales-Ortez had a lengthy rap sheet before committing his latest alleged crime.

In 2021, he was charged with first-degree murder, according to ABC7. He spent a year and a half in jail while awaiting trial, but was ultimately released after the authorities dropped the charges following a determination that someone else was to blame.

Morales-Ortez was found guilty of a previous theft case and fined $300, which he never paid, according to ABC7.

The illegal immigrant was charged for allegedly brandishing a gun and assaulting and injuring someone before he was released by sanctuary authorities this latest time, the local outlet reported.

The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office dropped the case, leading to his release.

After a lengthy manhunt, authorities rearrested him.