According to the Sporting News, the NBA and its union might seek a new model in which the age minimum is increased to 21 but players are allowed to be drafted out of high school. The NBA would allow young players to remain in the NBA’s Developmental League for two years or until they reached the age of 21 before they officially become NBA eligible.
The idea was that if the NCAA would not provide compensation assistance to the future basketball players, the D-League would be the one to recruit the players and offer them well-paid contracts. The NCAA could be in big trouble if the D-League shows players the lucrative salary to persuade them to forgo school for a professional basketball career.
“The NCAA are a bunch of horses’ asses,” an anonymous source said. “If they don’t get their heads out of the sand and help these kids who come from nothing, then you will see the NBA make a move toward salaries way more attractive than they are now at the D-League level. Why not invest $100,000 or $200,000 in a player, put him in the D-League and let him stay there? At that age, you need to get them away from home and you need to get them on the court.”
Current NBA commissioner Adam Silver continues to advocate that the “Age Restriction” rule can assist the players to stay in college for the extra years (or until they reach the age of 21) and develop their overall talents and maturity on and off the court before they reach the professional level.
“I’ve been a proponent of raising the age from 19 to 20 because I think it would make for a better league,” Silver told Lorenzo Reyes of USA Today in April. “I believe and continue to believe it will be in the best interest of the league. I think that the extra year in college will be a benefit for these young men to grow and develop as people and basketball players.”
Developing talents and maturity in college might benefit the players but there were several other options that could benefit them as well. Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner told ESPN in Dallas that if players want to develop talents at the professional level, then the D-League is the place to be. He didn’t think attending college was a necessity.
“The NCAA rules are so hypocritical, there’s absolutely no reason for a kid to go [to college], because he’s not going to class [and] he’s actually not even able to take advantage of all the fun because the first semester he starts playing basketball. So if the goal is just to graduate to the NBA or be an NBA player, go to the D-League,” Cuban said.
Last Wednesday, the National Basketball Players Association appointed attorney Michele Roberts to oversee the union and address the overall issues. Roberts, the first female to be elected as an executive director, should be prepared to share the ideas and discuss a new possible model of the D-League and “age restriction” with its union.
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