Former UCLA men’s basketball guard Amari Bailey is attempting to return to college basketball after playing 10 games in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets during the 2023-2024 NBA season, according to ESPN’s Dan Murphy.
‘Right now I’d be a senior in college,’ Bailey told ESPN in a statement. ‘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?’
Per ESPN’s report, the 6-foot-3 guard has already hired an agent and an attorney to represent him in his case, in which he is looking for the NCAA to give him the right to play one more season.
‘It’s not a stunt,’ Bailey continued. ‘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.’
The Chicago native joins a growing list of players to re-enter college basketball, though unlike the others, he has NBA regular-season experience. His request also comes at a time when the NCAA is currently in court fighting against the temporary restraining order that former Alabama and G-League forward Charles Bediako received from Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge James H. Roberts Jr. to return to play for the Crimson Tide.
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said that the NCAA ‘has and will not grant eligibility to any players who have signed an NBA contract.’
Buckley’s statement follows in line with what NCAA president Charlie Baker said in December when the college eligibility saga started to pick up.
‘@NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an @NBA contract (including a two-way contract),’ Baker wrote in a statement posted on social media. ‘… Rules have long permitted schools to enroll and play individuals with no prior collegiate experience midyear. While the NCAA has prevailed on the vast majority of eligibility-related lawsuits, recent outlier decisions enjoining the NCAA on a nationwide basis from enforcing rules that have been on the books for decades — without even having a trial — are wildly destabilizing. I will be working with DI leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball from these misguided attempts to destroy this American institution.’
Bailey was a one-and-done at UCLA, where he started 28 games during the 2022-2023 season. In 30 games for the Bruins, Bailey averaged 11.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 49.5% from the field and 38.9% from beyond the arc.
He declared for the NBA draft after the Bruins were upset 79-76 by Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. He was drafted by the Hornets with the No. 41 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, where he’d play in just 10 games that NBA season.
Bailey spent most of the 2023-24 NBA season with the Hornets’ G-League affiliate, Greensboro Swarm, before spending the entire 2024-25 season with the Long Island Nets, the G-League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets. He’s on a G-League roster this season, according to his G-League profile.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
