This is more of an opinion piece if anything. I think the NBA age limit cheats the young players who look to play professional basketball. Recently the NBA has been looking to raise their age limit to 20 years old (or two years removed from high school). Currently the age limit is set to 19, or one year removed from high school. I was very against that decision at the time, and I’ll make those arguments why here. It should be noted the NFL has an age limit in place as well, but I am more on board with that as professional football takes a very different physical toll and there’s no track record of anyone succeeding at a younger age. This article is not intended to talk about the NFL though.
Let’s outline some of the reasons I’ve read here and there about why the NBA is considering changing the age limit…and some of the reasons I think they are changing the rules.
Reason #1: Players on average will be more mature entering the NBA at an older age.
On the surface this seems like a legitimate reason. People mature with age, right? Of course, there’s no data to really back this up which is the big problem with this argument. For all the troubled athletes that entered the NBA straight from high school I could find just as many who spent years in college and had the same issues. Would Kobe Bryant (accused of rape), J.R. Smith (vehicular manslaughter, multiple traffic citations), Leon Smith (psychological problems), Andrew Bynum (overall maturity issues), and Eddy Curry (many different issues) not have these issues if they went to college? I don’t know, I mean Gilbert Arenas (brought guns into the locker room), Allen Iverson (various), Metta World Peace (jumped into the stands and punched a fan), Zach Randolph (various) all went to college and have their issues as well. Heck, Len Bias went to college for four years and dropped dead due to a cocaine overdose 48 hours after he was drafted. There are plenty of NBA players who came straight from high school and they have their heads on straight (Tyson Chandler, Al Harrington, Kevin Garnett (mostly), LeBron James (mostly). So I don’t buy this.
Reason #2: Without a college education, a player coming out of high school who doesn’t make it would have no future.
If that’s the case, make all NBA players get a degree before joining. While there is definitely merit to this, the solution should not be “don’t let the high schoolers join”. It should be the NBA setting up a program that helps players get their degrees as well as help with financial planning. Shaquille O’Neal wrote in his book about how he signed his first contract with the Magic and immediately spent more money than he had available to him. He ended up getting a financial advisor. I get that dealing with agents and such is all tricky, but the NBA should really work on having their players educated on these issues so if they do have a career ending injury, there is back-up plan. Also, some of this is on the institutions as well. Not all academic institutions support their student athletes after the season is over. There’s no reason a NBA player still can’t get their college degree during their NBA career (like Vince Carter, for example).
Reason #3: Game quality will improve in the NBA.
This is absolute bs. Of the top 15 NBA players of all time, four of them came straight out of high school (Garnett, LeBron, Kobe and Moses Malone). They’ve won a combined nine MVP awards and have all been the focal point of NBA Championship teams. Nevermind that Jermaine O’Neal was an MVP candidate in the mid 2000s, Tyson Chandler is a former Defensive Player of the Year, Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard and Shawn Kemp are top 100 players of all time and Amar’e Stoudemire is close. Considering the small amount of players that actually came out of high school in NBA history, this is pretty impressive and kills the whole game quality argument.
So yeah, all those reasons are pretty bad and do not offset the idea of a college player risking injury for no money because he doesn’t have the opportunity to play in the NBA. Especially for the NCAA…which is one of the worst sporting regulatory bodies period. The real reasons I believe the age limit is discussed is about money of course. The NBA owners are sneakily trying to shorten players’ careers…and as a result, the contracts they’d earn. That’s it. That’s the only reason I think the NBA wants to do this (okay, not completely true, they want to use the NCAA as a development league as well).
Just let me know when it’s okay to prevent a someone from potentially making millions while risking injury that could take all of that earning power away. Until then, let’s agree the current NBA age limit and proposed new NBA age limit are both terrible and bad for the NBA overall.