Former UCLA standout Amari Baileysaid heis attempting to become the first basketball player to return to college after playing in NBA games.
Bailey, 21, has hired an agent and a lawyer to prepare to fight for NCAA eligibility with hopes to join a college team and play one more season.
He said he started to explore a return to college earnestly in 2025 but has wondered if there was a way back to the NCAA since the day he was drafted in 2023. He said he made some mistakes as an 18-year-old freshman and left UCLA with “a lot to prove left on the table.”
“Right now I’d be a senior in college,” Bailey told ESPN. “I’m not trying to be 27 years old playing college athletics. No shade to the guys that do; that’s their journey. But I went to go play professionally and learned a lot, went through a lot. So like, why not me?”
The 6-foot-3 guard played one season at UCLA in 2022-23 before entering the 2023 NBA draft, where he was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the second round. He played in 10 games for the Hornets during his rookie season on a two-way contract and spent two years in the G League before being cut over the summer.
His effort will be another substantial legal test for the NCAA’s ability to enforce rules that decide who can play college sports during an era when waivers and lawsuits have steadily eroded a ban on professional players joining NCAA rosters.
NCAA president Charlie Baker said in December that the association would not grant eligibility to any player who has signed an NBA contract. However, Alabama forward Charles Bediako — who also played in the G League on a two-way NBA contract — tested the NCAA’s rules in state court and won an injunction that has allowed him to play for the Crimson Tide in recent games.
“The NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any players who have signed an NBA contract,” NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said when asked about Bailey’s plan to return. “Congress can strengthen NCAA rules so professional athletes cannot sue their way back to competing against college students.”
Bediako argued in court documents that the NCAA has been “selective and inconsistent” in enforcing its eligibility rules. His lawyers cited a recent NCAA decision to allow James Nnaji, a 2023 NBA draft pick who played professionally in Europe rather than signing with an NBA team, to suit up for Baylor.
Bailey was selected 10 picks after Nnaji in the same draft and signed the same type of contract as Bediako. Bailey told ESPN that playing a few minutes in a handful of NBA games late in his rookie season isn’t a good reason to treat him differently than those players.
“You’ve got a college-aged kid who wants to go to college and you’ve got a system that says too bad, you’ve gone to a different league so you’re out forever,” said Elliot Abrams, Bailey’s attorney. “I don’t see any real justification for it.”
Abrams helped former North Carolina football player Tez Walker restore his NCAA eligibility in a pivotal 2023 decision and said he has since worked with numerous other college athletes to help navigate the waiver process. NCAA rules allow athletes to play four full seasons during a five-year period that starts when they first enroll in college. Bailey would have one year remaining in that five-year window for the 2026-27 season.
The NCAA, which is fighting to overturn the Bediako court decision, prohibits anyone who has signed a professional contract from playing college sports unless the money they are making from their pro team covers only “actual and necessary expenses,” such as food, rent, health care and training costs associated with playing their sport.
NCAA members adopted the “actual and necessary expenses” exception in 2010 as schools began increasingly recruiting players from overseas. The new rule required the NCAA to handle players on a case-by-case basis, and schools have steadily pushed the waiver limits, from teenage European league players to older, higher-paid players in those leagues and then to the G League. The issue has become more pronounced in the past couple years as schools started paying players directly and the money athletes can make in the NCAA has started to outpace what they can earn in professional leagues.
The association initially changed the rules to accommodate a European system that places young players who make only enough to cover their living expenses alongside highly paid professionals within the same club.
Baker said in a statement earlier this month that these lawsuits ultimately take away opportunities from high school players, and veteran coaches have loudly opposed the lack of a clear standard for fear that it will lead to an unfettered two-way street between the NBA and college.
“A judge ordering the NCAA to let a former NBA player take the court Saturday against actual college student-athletes is exactly why Congress must step in and empower college sports to enforce our eligibility rules,” Baker said shortly after Bediako was granted a chance to play for Alabama.
Bailey said he thinks most college basketball prospects want to compete for spots with the best players in their age group regardless of where they have played in the past. He also said he thinks the five-year limit is fair but that perhaps it would be more realistic to prohibit players who signed a full NBA contract or first-round draft picks.
Bailey’s only professional contract was worth $565,000, he said. He argues that many starters for top-level college teams are making similar amounts of money, if not more.
Bailey said he has been training twice per day at home in Southern California and plans to begin speaking with schools in the near future about joining their roster for next season. He said he doesn’t have a specific team in mind but is looking for a place where he can prove that he can be a leader, run an offense at point guard and carry a team to the Final Four.
“It’s not a stunt,” Bailey said. “I’m really serious about going back. I just want to improve my game, change the perception of me and just show that I can win.”
His new team would have to petition the NCAA for a waiver to allow him to play. If the NCAA denies the waiver request, Bailey and his attorney could file a lawsuit in state or federal court to challenge the decision.
Bailey, who appeared in a reality television show about basketball moms in his early teens before moving to Los Angeles to play on the same high school team as Bronny James and other future NBA players, said he was not concerned about the criticism he might receive for his push to go back to school.
“I feel like I’ve dealt with a lot, and this wouldn’t be anything different,” he said.
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