05 June 2009

Regarding the NBA age limit

This is a complex issue so I’m not even going to try to tackle every aspect. Let me say this: I’m actually in favor of moving the age limit up to age 20.

So let's ask this: Who would benefit from lowering or even eliminating the current age limit? The fans? Absolutely not. The NBA players? Sort of. But most NBA players will get paid in time and will get paid handsomely. The real winners of eliminating the age limit would be those middling prospects who would get paid lavishly upon the assumption that someday, somehow, they’ll prove their worth.


Through the years, we’ve discovered plenty of folks like this. We could start with the mildly successful ones – that is to say, the ones that remain in the league:

DeShawn Stevenson, Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, Desagana Diop, Kendrick Perkins, Robert Swift, Sebastian Telfair, Shaun Livingston, Gerald Green, and Martell Webster.

I could go on and on with a list of guys who got paid a year or two earlier for skipping college. But these guys would eventually get their money. Is the game better off for getting these players a year earlier? Not really. Is the game worse off because Carmelo Anthony decided to win a championship with Syracuse? Absolutely not.


The game is, however, worse off for having to take chances on the likes of Ndudi Ebi out of high school. Those lottery teams that rely on the draft to rebuild are very much hurt by weak drafts filled with flimsy teenagers who may or may not fulfill their potential.


If the issue really is about money, then the players association should use their leverage not to lower the minimum age but to change the Collective Bargaining agreement so players coming in the league at age 20 can still receive two maximum contracts.


If this were to happen, everyone wins. Except Ndudi Ebi. But why should we be concerned about him anyway?

6 comments:

  1. Christopher,

    Your comment is spot on. High school seniors, no matter how talented, should have to excel at the college level for at least two years before the NBA shells out any big money to them.

    The "real deals" will only get better (and more hungry to boot), and the wannabes will be flushed out so that they don't embarrass themselves/the league and take money away from players who really deserve it.

    Harmon Killebrew's jersey

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  2. "If you can carry a gun in Iraq at 18, you should be able to play in the NBA. If you are good enough to make millions for a college and coaching staff, you should be able to be paid."

    There is a certain hypocrisy where the two sports with the strictiest age limits are the two majority African America (NFL and NBA obviously.) The NFL is so uniquely violent you can make some safety arguments that don't make as much sense in any other sport.

    Atheletes go pro in golf, tennis, figure skating, and other individual sports at very young ages (and in Europe, they do in bassketball as well)...the most extreme example must be gymnastics, by neccessity. The NHL has an 18 year old limit. But the NBA? "The players just aren't ready!" MLB teams draft players out of high school OR after 21 if they attend college; and has the best minor league system in the United States to further their abilities in a heavily acquired-skills/less purely atheletic game.

    Ndudi Ebi is an interesting example considering his whole NBA experience was a folly of unclear NBDLA/NBA rules and perhaps even outright dishonesty by the Timberwolves management.

    If a GM wants to take a risk on the next Kwame Brown not being as bad as Kwame Brown, why not let them? Because on the other hand, the NBA is based around stars and I don't see what Lebron James or NBA fans would have gained from him spending a year at Ohio State, learning a game fairly different than pro ball.

    As for busts -- there are plenty of college busts too. NCAA MVP's J.J. Reddick and Adam Morrison aren't exactly likely to light-up these NBA finals. In the end though, I find it interesting that many of those who usually defend free markets and low barriers to entry for business are suddenly against them when it benefits the players (George Will, I enjoy your column, but I'm looking at you.)

    Trivia: What do Alex Rodriguez and Wayne Gretzky have in common? David Stern wouldn't have let them play because they didn't spend a year after college.

    I hope a lot of players who could get something out of the college experience do so, and maybe they'll stay for four instead of a mandatory one. But the options should exist.

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  3. I could have written a response with everything Chris George just wrote from the army angle to the racism angle. I don't buy any of it. My points remain:

    1. Good players will get their money. (if not, then use your leverage there. Demand more pay for established players)

    2. Professional sports are not worse off for not having 18 year olds playing.

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  4. Re: racism and war

    The hilarity of this narrative can't be overstated. It conjures up images of a group of bespectacled, cigar-chomping white men in three piece suits in a boardroom running the country. They're able to keep the black man down, send our young off to war, et cetera.

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  5. Chris George,

    There is no inconsistency in promoting low barriers of entry vis-a-vis government regulations on business, while also saying that those who run the NBA should place certain restrictions on entry for the good of the game. I know that professional sports is tied up with gvmt. assistance and protection, and I lament that fact, but there is still no inconsistency between being pro-free market as Will is, while also asking what the NBA should do for its own good. After all, we don't bat an eye when other businesses have educational and other requirements for hiring.

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  6. Mr. DiQuattro:

    "After all, we don't bat an eye when other businesses have educational and other requirements for hiring."

    However, those other businesses
    1. generally do not recieve (as you noted) a pass on anti-trust law
    2. have educational requirements that are tied to something specific, such as an advanced degree to be a Psychologist or a certification to be a teacher (some people do bat an eye on the latter, by the way)
    3. the NBA isn't requiring players to spend a year playing basketball in the NCAA or europe or the NBDL to prove their skills -- though pretty much any player would do one of those three things during the "wait" to go pro. There is no certification that says "OK, you're ready to be drafted".

    I am not a constitutional law expert and I am not arguing it's unconstitutional for the NBA to have an age limit. I am arguing that the players union should fight hard to remove the rule and should in no way should agree to extend it to 20. I am arguing its inconsistent with the rules of most other pro sports around the world, and patronizing. I obviously don't think David Stern is a racist by any means! However, many of the players in the NBA grew up in poverty and being able to go pro a year earlier can make a big difference to their families.

    There are many people who could make a better contribution to society if spent a year or two in college. I don't see future NBA small forwards being high on that list.

    The George Will comment was more about his ongoing baseball position for a salary cap and strong revenue sharing: basically an internal form of socialism in baseball he would be opposed to in any other setting.

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