Kansas State made a late addition to their roster final week after they introduced the signing of Belgian ahead Nastja Claessens.
It’s a newsworthy pickup for a number of causes.
Firstly, Claessens is a very good participant. The 6-foot-1, 20-year-old has performed professionally in Spain and her native nation, and she or he additionally featured for the Belgian nationwide crew on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and this summer time within the FIBA Ladies’s EuroBasket. Belgium gained the EuroBasket title with Claessens averaging 5.2 factors and 1.8 rebounds per sport whereas taking pictures 42.9 p.c from 3-point land.
Earlier in 2024, earlier than the Olympics, Claessens additionally performed within the FIBA U20 Ladies’s EuroBasket with Belgium and averaged 17.7 factors, 8.1 rebounds and three.6 assists per sport throughout seven contests. For Jeff Mittie’s Wildcats, Claessens might be a vital addition following the graduations of gifted gamers like Serena Sundell and Ayoka Lee.
There’s one thing else that’s fascinating about Claessens too.
She was drafted by the Washington Mystics with the thirtieth total choose of the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Now, Claessens by no means signed with or practiced with the Mystics, so she retained her NCAA eligibility. However questions arose about her skilled future after she joined with Kansas State. Followers — and even quietly, some coaches and entrance workplace people — questioned aloud, may she be drafted once more by one other crew? Or would the Mystics retain her rights?
The collective bargaining settlement that the WNBA and its gamers agreed to in 2020 gives some perception.
It states: “If the participant does thereafter play intercollegiate basketball, then the crew that drafted her shall retain the unique WNBA rights to barter with and signal the participant for the interval ending one 12 months from the date of the draft following the date on which such participant lastly exhausts or loses her intercollegiate eligibility, offered that such crew makes a Required Tender to the participant inside seven (7) days of such draft.”
Within the easiest phrases, the coverage says that ought to a participant not signal with the crew that drafted them after which achieve NCAA eligibility, the crew would retain that participant’s WNBA rights as much as a 12 months after they’ve exhausted their school eligibility. A supply inside the WNBA’s workplace who’s conversant in the inner-workings of the CBA confirmed the accuracy of this interpretation to SB Nation.
So, hypothetically talking, if Claessens performs 4 years of school basketball, she would exhaust her eligibility in 2029. The Mystics, so long as they make a required tender to her inside seven days of the 2029 WNBA Draft, would then nonetheless have unique rights to barter a contract along with her for as much as a full 12 months, by 2030.
In fact, the present CBA expires this 12 months. It’s doable that this component of the settlement might be reworked.
In the event you’re questioning how Claessens was drafted earlier than she may play school basketball, it’s as a result of the WNBA has totally different eligibility guidelines for worldwide gamers. Gamers from outdoors of the U.S. are eligible for the draft that happens in the course of the 12 months of their twentieth birthday. Claessens turned 20 final December.
What the Mystics do with Claessens’ rights is value monitoring. Below the present CBA, her rights will be traded.
She was drafted by the group underneath its earlier regime, when Mike Thibault was the overall supervisor and his son Eric was the top coach. Each have been fired on the finish of the 2024 season and changed by normal supervisor Jamila Wideman and head coach Sydney Johnson. The Mystics didn’t instantly reply to SB Nation’s request for remark.
It’s value noting that Mike Thibault was employed to teach the Belgian nationwide crew this previous January and guided the Cats to the EuroBasket title this summer time. Eric Thibault is now an assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx.
