NBA Age Limit?

David Stern has brought public an idea to raise the age limit in the NBA to 20 years old. This is a tough one for me. On one hand, I love the idea that it would make the NBA game better as well as the college game. On the same hand though, how can you tell people that once were able to enter the draft that now they cannot?

This isn't like the NFL. The NFL has always had the age restriction on entry into their draft. I won't listen to the idea that the NFL has to drop their age restriction simply because it is already there. However, I cannot see a scenario where I can allow the NBA to raise up an age restriction.

There are a lot of interesting tangibles that come into play. Some of the NBA's biggest stars & best players came straight out of high school. Obviously LeBron is the first to come to mind along with Kobe. Kevin Garnett also came straight from 12th grade as did Jermaine O'neal, T-Mac, Amare Soudamire & Rashard Lewis. Still, of the 37 high schoolers that declared for the NBA draft (nine of which went completely undrafted) how many of them are the stars that they were supposed to be? Maybe the better question is how many of them could have become true stars if they had spent some time in the college game? Look at Eddie Curry. He came right out of high school in the 2001 NBA draft.  He was a below average player for his size & did not start to make a real contribution to the Bulls until this season. Even at that, coach Scotty Skiles thinks that he needs more work on his fundamentals. He is still at least two years (in my humble opinion) from reaching his potential. Why could these years not be spent in college where he might even have gotten himself an education to go with his basketball talents? Even Jermaine O'neal, one of the league's brightest stars, did not average over five points per game until his fifth season!

So yes, some of the biggest stars in the league today are kids that came right out of high school but at what price to the product until they finally mature & reach their potential? And, how badly has it hurt the college game knowing that some of the best players coming out of high school will never even grace the hardwood of division one basketball!? For every LeBron or Kobe, there are five Korleone Youngs. Even worse, there might be several more Leon Smiths (same article) that we never hear about.

Some people ask why the NBA can't raise the age limit when firms & companies all over the world are allowed to list four years of college as a pre-requisit to get a job? The fact is though, even if you lack the four years that they want, you can still APPLY for that job. It is then up to the company to decide whether or not they are going to hire you. No company can make a policy against people submitting an application. So, in the NBA, it would be like saying LeBron & Kobe could have entered the NBA draft, but nobody would have drafted them because they don't fit the pre-requisits. They still had to be allowed to enter the draft which is the NBA equivilent to an application.

I may not be able to get behind the NBA raising the age limit but something needs to be done. One thing I will absolutely NOT pay any credence to is Jermaine O'neals assertion that there are racial overtones in this decision. Sorry youngen, race has nothing to do with it. But O'neal (and many others for that matter) ask questions about why it is ok for baseball & hockey players to be drafted as high schoolers. They also ask why it is ok for high schoolers (and younger) to play golf or tennis. Let us first address the latter. In golf and tennis, you are out for yourself & only yourself. There is no team in either of those individual sports. You are your own enterprise. You don't get to make huge money or get huge endorsements unless you are a successful player (or super hot like that one Russian tennis chick).

So, in that instance, you are out for yourself. You don't get the money up front, you have to earn it by playing in tournaments or earning sponsorships. It does not hurt the game because in the end, only the best players are going to be the ones featured when they are playing well. If Jimmy Jones comes outta Lake Shore High School and is touted as the next big thing and gets drafted by the L.A. Lakers, even if he sucks, he is going to be on television a bunch & take a spot away from a proven veteran.

As for baseball & hockey, well, that is pretty simple really. Both of those sports have a minor league system. Tons of kids are drafted to play both sports right out of high school but how many of them do you end up seeing in the MLB or the NHL? The answer is not very many. They are drafted & then they go to the minors where they refine their talents, adjust to the pro level of their respective games &, when they are finally ready to come up and play in the show, they do. If they falter in the show, they get sent back down to the minors. In the NBA, there is no minor league system. So your choices are essentially cake or death if I might be so bold as to use an Eddie Izzardism. You either latch on to an NBA team & make big jack or you end up on the street without a pot to piss in. And oh, by the way, you also forfeit your chance to get a free education based on your athletic talent if you fail to stick in the NBA.

Instead of raising the age limit, maybe the NBA should work out a deal with the CBA or USBA. Perhaps they could set up a system similar to the one that NFL Europe & the real NFL have. Something certainly has to be done. Unfortunately for the NBA, I have a hard time believing that they are going to get the Player's Union to sign off on a new collective bargaining agreement that will allow them to raise their age limit to 20. Even if they do, they will likely end up spending more money in court battles with angry parents who are mad that their son (aka the "NEXT lebron") is not being allowed to live out his dream than they would waiting for these kids to start playing up to their potential.

Comments

[Dr. John Leonard]

The author cannot find the racial angle that Jermaine O'Neal refers to in his analysis. First the rule only applied to the US; the good European player can turn pro in the European leagues at age 15 or whatever. This will lead to greater concentration on fundamentals by the Europeans and thus more drafting of the European white players. How could Black Americans go to play professionally in Europe? Meanwhile the black kid in the US spends a year or two in college, perhaps getting something of an education. He is exploited in that he is worth $ 1 million per year as per Professor Robert Browne's article in Applied Economics c. 1995 and is getting a scholarship (worth far less). So a rich 60 year old white athletic director at a major university gets to exploit a poor 18 year old black kid. There is always the danger of a career ending injury or other problems. Such players as Wayne Estes, Tom Stith, Thomas Payne lost careers due to various reasons. The logic that most kids can't play at 18 ignores the fact that most men can't play at that level ever. Why penalize LeBron James because Korleone Young did not make it?