NBA defends age limit policy in letter

[SuperNova854]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4342058

WASHINGTON -- The NBA defended its minimum age requirement to Congress, but a critical lawmaker was unmoved and is asking to meet with top league officials to discuss it, according to letters obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The rule, which is part of the league's collective bargaining agreement with the players union, requires that players be at least 19 years old and a year out of high school before entering the league. Last month, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., urged the league and union to scrap the requirement in the next collective bargaining agreement, calling it unfair.

NBA president Joel Litvin told Cohen in a recent letter the purpose of the requirement is to promote the league's business interests by "increasing the chances that incoming players will have the requisite ability, experience, maturity and life skills" to perform at a high level. The policy also helps teams make informed hiring decisions, he wrote.

In addition, he said, players get an extra year to mature and develop, making it more likely they can handle the challenges of being an NBA player.

Litvin said the policy is motivated by "business considerations," not a desire to force players to attend college against their wishes.

He wrote that many employers require job candidates to have post-high school experience, and that the U.S. Constitution sets minimum ages for House members, senators and the president. Given that, "we do not understand your objection" to the rule, Litvin wrote.

In a letter sent to Litvin Monday, Cohen maintained that players should have the "economic freedom" to make their own decisions. He said he understood that the policy may help the league in its scouting and hiring decisions.

"However, my concern is that the players who must abide by this rule are harmed by the league's pursuit of these business interests," the congressman wrote, adding that the "age discrimination" prevents players from supporting their families.

The policy increases the chance that such players will be injured before getting the chance to play in the NBA, he added.

"I am concerned that the careers of young men who possess all the skills necessary to succeed in the NBA," Cohen wrote, "may be sacrificed in favor of the bottom lines of the teams on which they hope to play."

Cohen, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, asked for a meeting with Litvin and commissioner David Stern. Cohen has said that that he'd consider both hearings and legislation if the requirement remains.

Neither the NBA nor the union immediately responded to requests

 

[FlawLeSs]

i think it should go...imagine if they made lebron waste one year after highschool

 

[SuperNova854]

i think it should go...imagine if they made lebron waste one year after highschool

or Dwight, well nvm really, cuz Dwight wasnt all that good his rookie season.

 

[SHOGUN]

Fucking stupid how 18 y/o international players can come to the NBA, but 18 y/o kids here have to go to college for a year. Just adopt the MLB rules for the draft and be done with it. You can come out if you're a HSer, but if you go to school you have to stay in college for three years.

 

[FedEx227]

It's stupid. Basically the rule is in place for a few things.

One to prevent NBA GMs from making stupid decisions and paying big money for bad players. That's their fault. People bought into the Kwame Brown and Darko hype but that's nobodies fault but the GMs. There are more then enough resources around to make good decisions on players.

Two to not completely destroy college basketball. Not sure why the NBA has an obligation to the NCAA, they shouldn't.

Three to prevent bad pub. when guys don't get drafted and mess up their lives or whatever. Personally, that's like number one. Maybe search your name on the internet, if you don't see yourself in any mock drafts probably not a good idea to sign with an agent.

I'd rather they lift the age limit, destroy the WNBA and work on pumping money into a real development league.

 

[jeffx]

It's stupid. Basically the rule is in place for a few things.

One to prevent NBA GMs from making stupid decisions and paying big money for bad players. That's their fault. People bought into the Kwame Brown and Darko hype but that's nobodies fault but the GMs. There are more then enough resources around to make good decisions on players.

Two to not completely destroy college basketball. Not sure why the NBA has an obligation to the NCAA, they shouldn't.

Three to prevent bad pub. when guys don't get drafted and mess up their lives or whatever. Personally, that's like number one. Maybe search your name on the internet, if you don't see yourself in any mock drafts probably not a good idea to sign with an agent.

I'd rather they lift the age limit, destroy the WNBA and work on pumping money into a real development league.

You nailed it brother, especially about the NCAA. My guess is the NBA(like the NFL) views it as a free minor-league system.

 

[SuperNova854]

It's stupid. Basically the rule is in place for a few things.

One to prevent NBA GMs from making stupid decisions and paying big money for bad players. That's their fault. People bought into the Kwame Brown and Darko hype but that's nobodies fault but the GMs. There are more then enough resources around to make good decisions on players.

Two to not completely destroy college basketball. Not sure why the NBA has an obligation to the NCAA, they shouldn't.

Three to prevent bad pub. when guys don't get drafted and mess up their lives or whatever. Personally, that's like number one. Maybe search your name on the internet, if you don't see yourself in any mock drafts probably not a good idea to sign with an agent.

I'd rather they lift the age limit, destroy the WNBA and work on pumping money into a real development league.

Its not like the WNBA makes in money any ways

 

[corbin]

I'm going to go with the unpopular vote and say I love it.

As a college basketball fan, I love to see these players progress through the year and into the tournament. And for the people saying imagine if Lebron went to college... yeah imagine, college would have never been as exciting as it was for that one year. Lebron flushing home dunks left and right and carrying his team through the tournament. I sure as hell wouldn't mind that.

Imagine taking away Carmelo from Syracuse or taking Derrick Rose from Memphis. Each tournament wouldn't have been as exciting without these BIG names and the amount of excitement these type of players bring to the game.

I also love to be able to evaluate the players before they head into the draft with my own eyes. I hate to go with what ESPN shoves down our throats or the 2minute clips of the Highschool/European players that go instantly into the NBA.

You can argue that its worked for players like Tracy McGrady, Rashard Lewis, Jermaine O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Lebron and so on.

But before you do that, take a list at the flops that either received bad advice or just thought they were ready and didn't pan out in the NBA. Korleone Young, Ellis Richardson, Jonathan Bender, Leon Smith, Kwame Brown, Ousmane Cisse, Ndudi Ebi. These are all players who were just too raw and COULD have benefited from college coaching.

Think about it for a second. When you go to the gym and you find pick-up teammates, you know the difference when you have an ex-college player or when you have a high school player. Its really unfair to judge most of these high school players until they have jumped to the college level and played athletes somewhat around there skill level.

Flame away.

 

[FedEx227]

It's really not doing that though because if you look at the majority of the great players in this league, they've all been high schoolers and the guys that were one and dones easily could have been in the league after high school. Derrick Rose did not improve during his time at Memphis. Hell, if you think about it since he probably took about 2 classes IF that... he was basically in school for about 4-5 months? Is that really anything? How much are you going to learn about the game of basketball in 5 months.

I watched Rose in high school and in the pros... his game is not that much different. He's improved his shooting SLIGHTLY, but not much else improved. Ditto for Beasley and Durant. And hell this system already has a few pretty noticable busts (Oden, although injuries have played a huge part).

But yeah, that's why they do it absolutely. Why pay for a minor league system, TV rights, stadiums, etc. when you can get a free system from NCAA. Keep the NCAA happy. Keep the dumbass owners happy and make your league look like it cares about the well being of it's future players.

 

[FedEx227]

Its not like the WNBA makes in money any ways

No, in fact it sucks for NBA owners because they have to feed money into that cesspool of a league.

 

[SuperNova854]

The thing is that with the rule in place, all these kids just want to be one-and-dones. So in fact, the NCAA is losing more money because all these kids are just staying in the NCAA for a single year instead of four.

 

[FedEx227]

I'm going to go with the unpopular vote and say I love it.

As a college basketball fan, I love to see these players progress through the year and into the tournament. And for the people saying imagine if Lebron went to college... yeah imagine, college would have never been as exciting as it was for that one year. Lebron flushing home dunks left and right and carrying his team through the tournament. I sure as hell wouldn't mind that.

Imagine taking away Carmelo from Syracuse or taking Derrick Rose from Memphis. Each tournament wouldn't have been as exciting without these BIG names and the amount of excitement these type of players bring to the game.

I also love to be able to evaluate the players before they head into the draft with my own eyes. I hate to go with what ESPN shoves down our throats or the 2minute clips of the Highschool/European players that go instantly into the NBA.

You can argue that its worked for players like Tracy McGrady, Rashard Lewis, Jermaine O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Lebron and so on.

But before you do that, take a list at the flops that either received bad advice or just thought they were ready and didn't pan out in the NBA. Korleone Young, Ellis Richardson, Jonathan Bender, Leon Smith, Kwame Brown, Ousmane Cisse, Ndudi Ebi. These are all players who were just too raw and COULD have benefited from college coaching.

While I understand what you're trying to say, there's a fundamental flaw with your argument. It's not as if the only busts in NBA history have been high school guys. There have been hundreds if not thousands of 1 to 2 to 3 even to 4 year in college busts. Yeah, these names stick out as guys who need college coaching... but I think it's way more telling that more than 70% of the NBA All-Star teams are made up of straight from high school guys. That should totally outweight pieces of crap like Ndudi Ebi, who made a dumb decision and is ending up paying for it.

The NBA has no obligation to prevent idiots from making dumb moves. Nobody forced D'Angelo Collins or Korleone Young to enter the draft, but Collins and Young's agents and themselves.

I totally understand where you're coming from, but I just don't think a few bad examples of straight to high school busts should prevent every high school player from making the jump. What if I brought up 15 sophomore busts, should that mean that no sophomores should be able to go to the NBA because they could use those extra two years?

Like I said, I'll bring up the most obvious examples of the past few years - Beasley, Rose and Durant. If you watched these guys in high school and watch them now there is not much change in their games. Beasley has become a bit more of a shooter, Rose has gotten a bit better while Durant doesn't appear to have changed very drasticly. The only reason these guys are in the NCAA is for the enjoyment of the fans and it's a shame college players keep getting used like this. As you said, yeah it's great for people who like to watch the tournament. However, it's shitty for the players that are being forced against their will to do something they don't want to do JUST so you can have fun filling out your brackets and watching Coca-Cola commercials on CBS.

 

[The Messenger]

The thing is that with the rule in place, all these kids just want to be one-and-dones. So in fact, the NCAA is losing more money because all these kids are just staying in the NCAA for a single year instead of four.

And how does that make the NCAA lose money compared to those one and dones not coming at all?

 

[FedEx227]

It's made the recruiting process a complete mess, for one.

 

[corbin]

Derrick Rose did not improve during his time at Memphis.

I think that is unfair to judge that. If you want to make the case for his basketball skills not growing, I still think its hard to judge that. But I'll still give you it for argument sake.

How about the amount of leadership and maturity he showed in his first season in Chicago? You don't know how much he may have improved maturity wise because he took that one year at Memphis. Coach Calipari's guidance was only a positive in his road to the NBA... but whether it was needed? I guess we can only speculate.

How much are you going to learn about the game of basketball in 5 months.

You can learn quite a bit, especially if you are at big time University with big time coaches. Go ahead and interview any of the Duke players and ask if Coach K helped them on or off the court in those first 5 months. I can guarantee you 99% of them vote yes.

I see where you are coming from in your statements, I just respectfully disagree with some of them.

 

[The Messenger]

It's made the recruiting process a complete mess, for one.

Indeed it has, but when it's all said and done, Texas made more money off of Durant being there for one year then they would've if he went straight to the NBA. Same with Rose in Memphis, Mayo in USC, etc, etc.

 

[FedEx227]

Except that Mayo in USC cost their head coach their job and will set back the program many many years and the recruiting of Rose has also come under some trouble as well.

Yes, this happened before this one and done but it's becoming much more prevelant.

 

[FedEx227]

I think that is unfair to judge that. If you want to make the case for his basketball skills not growing, I still think its hard to judge that. But I'll still give you it for argument sake.

How about the amount of leadership and maturity he showed in his first season in Chicago? You don't know how much he may have improved maturity wise because he took that one year at Memphis. Coach Calipari's guidance was only a positive in his road to the NBA... but whether it was needed? I guess we can only speculate.

Yes, that one year of maturity paid off so much that within months of being draft he was caught going something like 70 MPH over the speed limit on a Chicago highway.

He also led his high school team to back-to-back state championships. I don't think he needed leadership. His leadership is being an amazing basketball player with freakish skills and one of the quickest first steps in the game today. He nearly single-handedly led Simeon to the 06 and 07 IHSA championships. That's enough leadership right there.

 

[corbin]

EDIT : double post

 

[corbin]

Yes, that one year of maturity paid off so much that within months of being draft he was caught going something like 70 MPH over the speed limit on a Chicago highway.

People make mistakes even when they are in college. Does it shelter them from everything? No. Does it prevent them from making these mistakes on a constant basis? It could.

It really depends on the type of person you are, college can actually be an eye opening experience and mold you into the type of person you want to be.

He also led his high school team to back-to-back state championships. I don't think he needed leadership. His leadership is being an amazing basketball player with freakish skills and one of the quickest first steps in the game today.

No high school game can compare to playing on CBS with millions and millions of viewers tuning in to see you showcase your talent. Its a completely different ball game. I would be VERY surprised if he didn't learn a single thing about himself after this game.