How were the Grizzlies able to sign Haddadi without out him first going into the draft?

Question

Or was he technically available in the draft and just was not selected. I know there was a problem with teams being able to negotiate with him because of him being Iranian. I assumed he was not in the draft pool because of those restrictions. Can anyone clear this up for me?

Answer 1

i think he entered the draft but nobody picked him because nobody knew about him until the olympics

Answer 2

No i think he was too old to still be eligible for the draft, they were able to sign him because he was a free agent.

I wanted to confirm whether the age maximum to be eligible for the draft was 26. But no matter how hard i tried i simply couldn't find an answer anywhere. But whether or not he was  or wasn't eligible the main reason he wasn't in the draft was because it wasn't until recently(the olympics) that he started to garner some serious attention for NBA teams.