 |
| RealGM Hoop Net |
|
| Search |
|
|
|
|
| Trade Checker ID |
| Draft Sim ID |
| Newsletter |
|
|
|
|
Authored by Brandon Hoffman - 9th April, 2008 - 11:56 am
NBA Commissioner David Stern said yesterday that although he believes a 20-year-old minimum age for players would be an improvement, it is not the highest priority.
The league's minimum age is 19. Stern said he has no plans to reopen the NBA's collective bargaining agreement to make a change.
That’s great news because a minimum age of 19 is foolish enough.
In 2005, the player’s union agreed to raise the age to 19 in an exchange for an increase in the NBA’s salary cap.
Why?
It has nothing to do with the success rate, on or off the court, of the individuals who have chosen to declare for the NBA draft at 18.
From 1975 to 2005, 41 high school players were drafted into the NBA.
Darryl Dawkins, Bill Willoughby, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O’Neal, Taj McDavid, Tracy McGrady, Al Harrington, Rashard Lewis, Korleone Young, Ellis Richardson, Jonathan Bender, Leon Smith, Darius Miles, DeShawn Stevenson, Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, DeSagana Diop, Ousmane Cisse, Tony Key, Amare Stoudemire, DeAngelo Collins, Lenny Cooke, LeBron James, Travis Outlaw, Ndudi Ebbi, Kendrick Perkins, James Lang, Dwight Howard, Shaun Livingston, Sebastian Telfair, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith, Dorell Wright, Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, C.J. Miles, Monta Ellis, and Amir Johnson.
Of the 41 players drafted out of high school, only 10 of those failed to make the NBA: Taj McDavid, Korleone Young, Ellis Richardson, Leon Smith, Ousmane Cisse, Tony Key, DeAngelo Collins, Lenny Cooke, Ndudi Ebbi, and James Lang.
McDavid, Richardson, Key, Collins, and Cooke weren’t drafted. Taj wasn’t even recruited by a Division I school. Young, Cisse, and Lang were second round draft picks. That means only two high school players, Leon Smith and Ndudi Ebbi, failed to make the NBA after being selected in the first round.
By contrast, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are widely considered the two best players in the game. Kevin Garnett, Kobe, and LeBron are MVP candidates this season. KG won his first MVP award in 2004. Dwight Howard and Amare Stoudemire were All-Stars this year. Kobe and Amare were 1st team All-NBA last season.
Kobe, LeBron, KG, Amare, and Dwight Howard are all deserving of being named to the All-NBA first team this season.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal have been perennial All-Stars and All-NBA members. Tyson Chandler (New Orleans Hornets ) and Kendrick Perkins (Boston Celtics ) are starters on the Eastern and Western Conference’s best teams by record.
Al Harrington, Rashard Lewis (he of the freshly inked six-year $110 million dollar contract), Jonathan Bender (before a career-ending injury), Darius Miles (before career-ending injury), DeShawn Stevenson (one of the best perimeter defenders in the league), Al Jefferson (one of the league’s brightest young big men, the centerpiece in the deal that brought KG to Boston), Josh Smith, DeSagana Diop (included in the deal that brought Jason Kidd to Dallas), J.R. Smith (a legitimate 6th man of the year candidate), C.J. Miles, and Amir Johnson have been/are solid pros.
Eddy Curry, Kwame Brown, and Sebastian Telfair may have failed to live up to expectations but the numbers don’t lie. High school players have a 76% success rate of making it in the NBA. That’s an incredibly high success rate, higher than players with one, two, three, or four years of college Not only that, but a significant number of those successful players have gone on to establish themselves as the very best players in the league.
So why does the NBA have a 19-year-old age limit, and why would David Stern like to raise the age to 20?
1. The NCAA markets up-and-coming basketball stars for free
Like the NBA, the NCAA is an organization driven by star power, but unlike the NBA, stars in college don’t receive a dime of the revenue they generate. So why wouldn’t the NBA prefer the NCAA do their work for them…free of charge? Rather than pay an athlete while he develops, the NBA can sit back and watch players become stars during March Madness.
NCAA athletes receive an education for their efforts. But let’s be honest, are many of those athletes receiving a real education? The graduation rates of collegiate athletes indicate otherwise.
2. Many basketball fans feel that a college education helps basketball players become more disciplined and keeps them out of trouble
Where’s the proof? High school draftees have been arrested less than any other class. Of the 41 players drafted out of high school, only three (Kobe Bryant, DeShawn Stevenson, and Darius Miles) have had charges brought against them. None of the three were convicted of the accused crimes.
3. Proponents of an age limit rule argue that the time spent in college makes college stars better NBA players
Again, where’s the proof? Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire, and Dwight Howard are five of the ten best players in the league.
Monta Ellis (a second round draft pick out of high school in 2005) won the 2006-2007 Most Improved Player Award. Andrew Bynum (a first round pick in 2005) was on pace to win the Most Improved Player Award this season before he was dealt a near season ending injury.
It’s no coincidence that many of the NBA’s brightest stars were drafted out of high school. Kobe’s numbers weren’t spectacular in his first two seasons, but he benefited from the little bit of playing time and practice with pros early in his career. The NBA has the best coaches, the best facilities, the best training regimens, and the season is longer. NBA players are trained to play in the NBA not in college, making them better prepared at an earlier age for a career at the highest level of basketball.
Mike Dunleavy, son of a long-time NBA Head Coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. played three years at the University of Duke, the best college basketball program in the nation.
"It sounds silly to say the college game isn't good for guys, but there may be some truth to it," Dunleavy said. "If you're good enough to play 10 to 15 minutes a night and practice every day, you'll get dramatically better being in the NBA compared to staying in school."
And let’s not forget that David Stern and Co. have global aspirations. Want to know what last year’s Most Valuable Player and Finals MVP have in common? Neither one attended college. Both Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker were professional basketball players at the ages of 16.
In fact, many of the NBA’s top foreign born players - Yao Ming, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobili, Mehmet Okur, Leandro Barbosa, Nene, Andrei Kirilenko, Peja Stojakovic, and Hedo Turkoglu (the front-runner for this year’s Most Improved Player Award) were professional basketball player before the age of 18.
Given the success rates of the players who have entered the NBA and/or played professional abroad at or before the age of 18, whose interests are the powers that be trying to protect?
The NBA’s? The NCAA’s? College basketball fans?
Because it certainly isn’t the young men who dream of playing in the NBA.
- Please feel free to contact Brandon Hoffman via e-mail (ballerblogger@yahoo.com) with comments or questions |
