As former college athletes continue striving to return to NCAA competition, Amari Bailey is making quite a unique effort.
The 21-year-old aims to go back to school and play college basketball again, even though he’s already had a taste of the NBA, as reported by ESPN on Friday. He mentioned that he’s brought on an agent and a lawyer to help him navigate the qualifications for university entrance exams.
“Now, I would be a senior in college,” Bailey remarked. “I’m not trying to be a 27-year-old doing track and field in college. I respect those athletes; that’s their journey. But having played professionally and learned so much, why shouldn’t I get to do this too?”
That said, the odds of this actually happening are quite slim. According to NCAA Senior VP of External Affairs Tim Buckley, the organization “has not and will not grant eligibility to players who have signed NBA contracts.”
Bailey, who played at UCLA during the 2022-23 season, was chosen by the Hornets in the 2023 NBA Draft as the 41st overall pick.
The 6-foot-3 guard signed a two-way contract with Charlotte, which allows him to alternate between the NBA and the G League’s Greensboro Swarm.
These two-way contracts restrict the number of days players spend in the NBA before the team decides whether to convert them to a standard contract or drop them altogether.
In the 2023-24 season, Bailey played in 10 games for the Hornets, accumulating 65 minutes on the court and averaging 2.3 points, but he never progressed to a standard NBA contract and remained on the two-way deal.
Nevertheless, he can say he played NBA basketball.
James Nagy, another player drafted in the 2023 draft, went on to join Baylor University’s basketball program after being picked 31st overall by the Pistons and later transferred to the Hornets.
Nagy is an overseas prospect who played for FC Barcelona before his draft pick, then went on to Girona and Merkezefendi in Turkey.
His rights were traded to the Knicks in 2024 as part of a trade involving Karl-Anthony Towns. Although he participated in the 2025 Summer League with New York and had time with the Hornets in 2023, he technically didn’t play in any NBA or G League games.
Nagy has played seven games at Baylor so far, averaging 1.4 points and 3.3 rebounds in about 11.6 minutes per game.
Charles Bediako, who played for Alabama in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, is back with the team for the 2025-26 season after initially leaving to pursue the NBA.
He joined the Spurs for the 2023 Summer League and later signed a two-way contract with the team but was released in December due to a torn meniscus.
From 2023 through the 2025-26 season, Bediako participated in 46 G League games before being allowed a return to Alabama, where he played in two games.
A former standout at UCLA and Sierra Canyon, Bailey shared the court with recognized high school athletes such as Bronny James, Zaire Wade, and current Nets forward Zaire Williams.
While at UCLA, Bailey averaged 11.2 points per game in his sole season. He subsequently played in 34 G League games over the following two seasons.
