Usually, players drafted in the draft sign their first NBA contracts that same offseason. For most players, and particularly Americans, the NBA is the pinnacle of professional basketball, the place they have always wanted to be. It is also indisputably where the most money is, and so the quicker one can prove themselves in it, the quicker one can earn the really big money.
Each year, though, some players do not join the NBA straight away. Some never come at all, with players as far back as 1986 still technically having their draft rights owned by an NBA franchise on account of never signing an NBA deal. Others will join in the future; after all, being selected in an NBA draft is a privilege, a prestige and an invitation to sign, but not a requirement.
From this latter group, there have been some big successes. Be it through a deliberate
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