Top officials with the NBA and USA Basketball were blindsided by the timing and changes in the NCAA's announcement of future rules surrounding pro basketball prospects, sources told ESPN.
The NCAA launched a commission and set of subcommittees to address the fallout of the FBI investigation into the college basketball industry, resulting in several policy shifts -- including the assigning of responsibility to USA Basketball for something the organization had already told the NCAA it wanted no part: bearing responsibility for selecting elite senior high school prospects who will be allowed to sign with registered agents.
USA Basketball doesn't have the infrastructure or interest in accepting the role of evaluating the nation's top prospects for a yet-to-be-determined number of players who will annually be allowed to sign with agents at the end of their junior years, sources told ESPN.