From Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports:
A U.S. Congressman is demanding that NBA commissioner David Stern and NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter explain to Congress the reasoning behind the league’s 19-year-old age minimum for U.S. players to enter the draft.
U.S. Rep Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) wrote both men a letter Wednesday to express his “deep concern” over a rule that “bar(s) athletes from playing in the league on the basis of age” and asked that the “policy be repealed” in the next collective bargaining agreement.
The four-year-old rule sends most U.S. players to the collegiate ranks for at least one season.
“This system does far more to serve the financial interests of the universities at which the students play than the educational interests of the student themselves,” Cohen wrote in a letter obtained by Yahoo! Sports. “I am convinced the (age rule) contributed to the recent spate of scandals involving college athletes.”
Cohen has asked that Stern and Hunter voluntarily open a dialogue with him concerning the rule and discuss “why this rule exists,” according to press secretary Steven Broderick.
