Kansas State made a late addition to their roster final week once they introduced the signing of Belgian ahead Nastja Claessens.
It’s a newsworthy pickup for a number of causes.
At first, 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 season within the FIBA Ladies’s EuroBasket. Belgium received the EuroBasket title with Claessens averaging 5.2 factors and 1.8 rebounds per sport whereas capturing 42.9 % 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 could possibly be a vital addition following the graduations of proficient 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 general decide 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 of us — 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 presents 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 yr 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 yr after they’ve exhausted their faculty eligibility. A supply throughout the WNBA’s workplace who’s accustomed to the inner-workings of the CBA confirmed the accuracy of this interpretation to SB Nation.
So, hypothetically talking, if Claessens performs 4 years of faculty 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 yr, via 2030.
After all, the present CBA expires this yr. It’s attainable that this factor of the settlement could possibly be reworked.
For those who’re questioning how Claessens was drafted earlier than she may play faculty 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 through the yr of their twentieth birthday. Claessens turned 20 final December.
What the Mystics do with Claessens’ rights is value monitoring. Underneath the present CBA, her rights could be traded.
She was drafted by the group below its earlier regime, when Mike Thibault was the overall supervisor and his son Eric was the pinnacle coach. Each had been fired on the finish of the 2024 season and changed by common 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 educate the Belgian nationwide crew this previous January and guided the Cats to the EuroBasket title this summer season. Eric Thibault is now an assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx.
