Virginia’s Thijs de Ridder can sign with an NBA team right now originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Virginia’s Thijs de Ridder is a freshman. He can also sign with an NBA team today, or tomorrow, or whenever he wants, if a contract were to be offered to him.
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That’s because of a fascinating loophole that only applies to two players in the entire country, the other being Louisville’s Sananda Fru.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger laid out the situation in a new article — it’s because of a couple different factors.
“The NIL-driven influx of overseas players into the NCAA has also created an interesting sub-species of prospect: the post-draft college guy,” Hollinger writes. “Neither De Ridder nor Fru can be drafted this year, because they were already in the 2025 draft as auto-eligible 22-year-olds — De Ridder with Bilbao in Spain and Fru with Braunschweig in Germany. Neither was selected, and no NBA team owns their rights. As a result, they are technically eligible to sign into the league at any time.”
These guys were both playing with pro teams in Europe, and those draft prospects get entered into the class when they hit 22 years old, if they haven’t already entered before then.
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They weren’t drafted, but they’re both good enough college players that an NBA future isn’t an impossible thing to imagine.
de Ridder in particular has had some immensely impressive games for the Cavaliers. He plays beyond his assumed years, but that’s because he is far from an ordinary freshman.
Because of NIL dollars, it doesn’t make sense for de Ridder to leave school anytime soon. The fact that he could, even in the middle of a season, is particularly fascinating, though.
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