Because its any different if they jump straight from high school, foregoing the institution altogether, and still washing out? I hate politics with a passion. I like the age limit, and I think it should be two year minimum.
The age limit is stupid. It's just another way for the NCAA teams to make money off of the players they're bringing in (who, don't get paid anyways). If anything, if there were a decent age limit (I like football's 3-year rule) set forth, the players should get some money since they're the ones bringing in money. Nothing like the NBA, but you know what I mean.
Getting a 4-year free scholarship is plenty of compensation. If they want to get paid they can take the Brandon Jennings route and go overseas. The reason I don't like high school players jumping straight to the pros is it ruins the product on the court and takes away a roster spot for veteran players or 4 year college players who can actually play quality minutes.
ever met an athlete before? most have trouble uttering complete sentences, let alone finishing an university degree. as for the jennings scenario- a lot of european ball clubs implement an informal two import rule and those american imports are expected to score or else they will be shipped back to where they come from (e.g. just happened to courtney sims who was playing for cska moscow). read paul shirley's book "can i keep my jersey" - where he documents the pressures of being an american in the euroleague. i personally think its an unfair risk for these kids to assume. and as a previous poster as pointed out- its odd that basketball has implemented such a rule when tennis, golf, hockey ,baseball and most other sports have no such age requirement. besides, many of today's nba stars bypassed college straight for the pro's- e.g. KOBE, BYNUM, jo, kg, josh smith, lebron, amare, al jefferson, kendrik perkins, and the list goes on. i personally think the nba is trying to use college basketball as their minor leagues and thats not what the ncaa is- its a big time business with a billion dollar tv deal and millionaire coaches . i would allow nba clubs to draft kids out of high school but implement a rule whereby these kids would have to spend a mandatory year in the nbdl.
You forgot to make a list of guys who were complete busts, which is just as long or longer. I, personally, would support the age limit being dropped if each team had their own D-league team and a few stipulations were put in place, like a rule that says all HS rookies can only play in the d-league. And they should even expand the draft to 3 rounds and forbid teams from picking HS players in the first round. Something like that would give players a choice to go right into the NBA, but still make it more attractive to go to school.
Whatever the case, I think the limit should be 3 years. Not only will they be a meaningful part of the campus (unlike most one-and-dones), but they'll be in a position to graduate with a degree before they go off to the NBA. One year is just a useless, politically-correct hype machine to keep people happy with the idea of an institution "maturing" these kids. 3 years not only makes college basketball a lot more exciting, but it creates those rivalries like Magic-Bird. And i was a student-athlete myself first year, so I can tell you that when I was being recruited to UCLA for football and track, the 4-year compensation was the least important. Especially for basketball players who are just using the colleges as one-year platforms to showcase their talent nowadays. I can see why you dont think paying the players is a good idea, but why should the schools seize all the profits (a la Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, John Wall, etc.). I'm not saying million contracts, but you get what i'm saying.
ha, I sort of glanced over the last part of deception's post and I just now realized we had the same idea.
that's ridiculous. it doesn't hurt the product on the court. and the guys who would lose their roster spots aren't veterans who can actually play quality minutes, it would be the end of the bench guys that don't ever deserve to see the court. some players are good enough to play in the nba right away and i don't see any reason in stopping them.
people always say this, but they are always wrong. go ahead, make a list of guys who were busts. see if it's as long or longer than the list of guys who have been successes. and then compare with players who have been to various amounts of college. the high school guys fare better(and they should as generally only the best leave early).
that's not true, but forcing them to "attend" 2 or 3 years of college wouldn't really change anything in that regards for the vast majority of them anyway.
I could go through and make a list of all the Ndudi Ebi, James Lang, Robert Swift, Gerald Green types, but what's the point? It's not like an age limit would have kept Kobe, LeBron, Amare, etc. out of the league, it would have just delayed it a year. I don't understand when people use that as an argument.
and the age limit wouldn't have kept those other guys from being busts either. the age limit is basically useless. it tries to protect bad gms from themselves, but doesn't really do a very good job of that.
It does hurt the brand. Look at the quality of basketball these days. The fundamentals aren't there for most players in the league. Team basketball is a foreign concept to a lot of players. A lot of the players in the league would have better served if they attended college. I like the idea of younger players working their way through the DLeague.
and you blame that on people coming straight from high school? that just doesn't make any sense. are you saying that the players coming straight from high school or after only a year of college are less fundamentally sound than other players? because i can't agree with that at all.
Absolutely. There's only a handful of teams in the NBA that function within a system. The majority of the teams in the league have a lot of talented athletes with raw NBA skills. There's actually been several studies about it. I'll try to find an article call talking about the death of the mid-range game of basketball and how it ties in with kids jumping into the league to early.
