Yesterday, the NBA defended its minimum age requirement to Congress in response to Tennessee representative Steve Cohen’s arguments against the rule. Cohen compared the age limit to slavery. “It’s a vestige of slavery. Not like the slavery of 150 years ago, but it’s a restraint on a person’s freedoms and liberties,” he said. The rule, which was established in 2005, is part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the players union. It requires that players be at least 19 years old and a year out of high school before entering the league. According to the AP, “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 process sparked a debate on FanHouse, where Tim Povtak and Tom Ziller argued the pros and cons of the restriction:
Instead of letting players come directly from high school — which was stopped after the 2004 Draft — the league now requires both a year out of high school and a 19-year-old minimum age requirement before a player can be drafted.
It means a little less baby-sitting that the NBA coaches must do. It means players will come with a little more maturity, and a little higher skill level if they attend college or play overseas or in the Development League for a year. It means a better product.
Yes, the best players in the league today — Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, etc. — came directly from high school, but if you remember, three of those four weren’t much fun to watch that first season because their fundamentals were poor. It would have been better to have them learning the game at Kentucky, North Carolina or Duke. [. . .]
The fact is that the league executives haven’t made as many mistakes evaluating talent since the rule took effect in 2005.
If there was an age limit, Kwame Brown (No. 1 in 2001), Darius Miles (No. 3 in 2000) and Darko Milicic (No. 2 in 2003) would not be considered such disasters because their flaws would have been exposed before they got to the NBA. They would not have been taken in spots so high.
The track record that Povtak discards is not ignorable. Three of the five players voted to the All-NBA first team this season (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard) were drafted at age 18. Six of this season’s All-Stars jumped to the NBA straight out of high school. And to say LeBron or Kobe weren’t “fun to watch” as 18-year-old rookies? LeBron, who average 20/5/6 and finished ninth in MVP voting his rookie season? Kobe, who was a rotation player for a 56-win team? Dwight, who finished in the top 10 in rebounding and field goal percentage as an 18-year-old rookie, wasn’t good enough for our Holy league? Give me a break!
Povtak lists the infamous straight outta high school busts: Kwame and Darius leading the way, with Darko Milicic thrown in for good measure. (As if another season of Adriatic League performance would have discouraged some team from picking Milicic top five.) The age minimum has not eliminated the bust, however.
Heck, in the first draft consummated after the age minimum was instituted, we were treated to selections including junior swingman Adam Morrison at No. 3, senior big man Shelden Williams at No. 5, senior guard Randy Foye at No. 6, sophomore center Patrick O’Bryant at No. 9, 20-year-old center Mohammed Sene at No. 10, senior guard J.J. Redick at No. 11 and senior center Hilton Armstrong at No. 12. Clearly, the age minimum did not fix the draft! You think those lottery teams might have been better off with the opportunity to select from the graduating high school class of that season, guys like Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Thaddeus Young? I think Charlotte might have been better off with Durant instead of Morrison. That seems fairly safe to say.
Randy Hill at FOXSports.com is opposed to the limit, too:
The scout referenced earlier admitted that identifying the great player at age 17 or 18 is easier said than done. I don’t doubt it. I also don’t doubt that adding a year or two to the evaluation process might — in theory — make for more sound hiring practices. But have we really been treated to more informed drafting since 2005?
Less than a month after going second in the 2009 draft, serial collegian Hasheem Thabeet has several NBA talent sharpies shaking their heads.
And before you continue trotting out more busters like Leon Smith, it should be pointed out that many who since have disappeared lacked the academic profile to even qualify for college.
Since Kevin Garnett kick-started the trend back in 1995, 38 high schoolers have hopped into the draft; 14 are — or have been — star-caliber players. And if you’re truly embracing the notion that Kobe or LeBron still would have been just dandy (or better) with one year under Coach K, please tell me where they might be after a catastrophic injury during that freshman season.
It’s true that there are more opportunities to be injured in an NBA season; but first-round picks receive guaranteed millions. Anyone can return to school and pay for an education after destroying a knee in pro basketball. But you have just one opportunity to make seven figures at age 18.
Ziller and Hill back up their opinions with facts and figures (although Hill’s numbers are flawed), while Povtak’s argument is based on outdated assumptions. From 1975 to 2005, 42 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, Martell Webster, Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, C.J. Miles, Monta Ellis, and Amir Johnson.
Proponents of the NBA’s age limit like to argue that for every Kobe and LeBron there’s a few Korleone Youngs and Taj McDavids, but as you can see, that’s simply not true.
Only ten high school draftees failed to make it in the NBA: Young, McDavid, Ellis Richardson, Leon Smith, Ousmane Cisse, Tony Key, DeAngelo Collins, Lenny Cooke, Ndudi Ebbi, and James Lang.
McDavid, Richardson, Key, Collins, and Cooke went undrafted. McDavid 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 stick in the league after being selected in the first-round.
As Ziller pointed out, three of the five players voted to the All-NBA first team last season (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard) were drafted out of high school. And the parade of preps-to-pros players that have made an impact in the league doesn’t stop there. Jermaine O’Neal, Tracy McGrady, Rashard Lewis, and Amare Stoudemire have been perennial All-Stars and/or All-NBA selections. Plus, Al Harrington, Darius Miles, DeShawn Stevenson, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, DeSagana Diop, J.R. Smith, C.J. Miles, and Amir Johnson have established themselves as solid pros, deserving of lucrative extensions in addition to their rookie scale contracts.
Eddy Curry, Kwame Brown, Gerald Green, and Sebastian Telfair may have failed to live up to expectations, but the the age limit isn’t about maximizing potential. Monta Ellis, a second round draft pick out of high school in 2005, won the 2006-2007 Most Improved Player Award. Andrew Bynum, who was selected 10th in the same draft, was on pace to win the award a year later before suffering a season-ending injury. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence that suggests players improve at a faster pace in the NBA. 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. But don’t take my word for it, listen to Pacers forward Mike Dunleavy.
Dunleavy, son of long-time NBA player and current Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy Sr., played three years at Duke University, one of the top college basketball programs in the country.
“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.”
The NBA’s age limit is a sham. It’s a self-serving rule designed to minimize non-existent risks, and protect the NBA’s bottom-line. Here’s hoping Cohen continues to lead the charge to rescind a rule that never should’ve been enacted.
