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Nobody thought that a TikToker could overshadow even Victor Wembanyama, the projected No. 1 pick a few days to draft night. However, Jordan Haber had other plans.
Haber played youth league basketball and is going to be in the Barclays Center, Brooklyn on Thursday night, being counted as one of the 2023 draft class.
He posted on his TikTok account the news of his unbelievable draft status, and the video has been watched 3.1 million times.
"I am now Jordan Haber, member of the 2023 NBA draft class, uh, soon to be undrafted class," Haber said.
It's a story that sounds stranger than fiction but is completely true. So, how did this even happen?
The Jordan Haber draft loophole
Jordan Haber is a recent law graduate from the University of Florida, where all he did was study, literally. He said that he likes to read random legal documents, and he laid his hands on the NBA's collective baragaining agreement.
The lifelong Miami Heat fan seems to be ticking off a bucket list at the moment as he will actually be allowed to attend the draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He might get to meet a few future legends and current basketball prospects.
Haber again bucks the trend in this regard. He only hopes to get a picture with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. But how did he really get into the draft? Is it even legal?
The CBA that Haber got a hold of only stipulated that one NBA season needed to have elapsed since the player graduated high school and a few other stipulations. He had made a bet with his friends about the draft beforehand.
Haber filled out the forms provided by the NBA, emailed them back to the NBA and was declared draft eligible. Voila!
According to Article X, Section 1 (b)(i) and (ii), a person can be eligible for the draft if he is "at least nineteen (19) years of age during the calendar year in which the Draft is held, and ... at least one (1) NBA Season has elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school" and "has graduated from a four-year college or university in the United States (or is to graduate in the calendar year in which the Draft is held) and has no remaining intercollegiate basketball eligibility."
Haber has amassed a following of 96,000 on his TikTok account, where he updates his followers on his draft journey. He has also indicated that a documentary about the extraordinary experience is in the works.
The cheerful Haber is always cracking jokes, and he summarized his experience as such:
"Let me put it like this, to put this all into context. It has been easier to get into and go to the NBA draft than get Taylor Swift tickets. Like, seriously, I can't get tickets anywhere."
