<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Rich with the spoils of victory in labor negotiations and fresh from a photo op with the world champions, David Stern is smugly acting like he has saved the basketball world. Correction, Mr. Stern: You have momentarily saved your part of the basketball world by passing along one of your biggest problems to others. By raising the age limit to 19 for those entering the NBA draft, Stern and his co-conspirators in the players' union did a major disservice to their best farm system ? college basketball. They can talk all they want about trying to protect young people and maintaining the integrity of the NBA, but Stern and his mouthpieces are ignoring two important facts: ? They aren't protecting anybody. ? The NBA has no integrity. This is a grandstanding public relations move ? nothing more, nothing less. The NBA was getting tired of taking the rap for high school players declaring for the draft. So the NBA raised the age limit by one year. With the opportunity for immediate NBA gratification no longer an option for the next LeBron, Kobe or K.G., our high school phenoms have a handful of choices. A few will locate a prep school that offers post-graduate hoops. Some will head overseas for a year of travel and paychecks. The NBA's developmental league should get a few enrollees. But the large majority of these players will give it the old college try. Hey, if you're forced to cool your Nikes for a year, why not do it on a pretty campus and in front of thousands of adoring fans? Funny, but I haven't found the curriculum that gets you a degree in one year ? especially if you're practicing two hours a day and playing 30-plus games. But getting a degree is the furthest thing from these players' minds. If you're on the one-and-done plan, all you have to do is stay eligible through the first semester and then you can totally blow off classes for the balance of the season, confident that the NBA will rescue you from extra study hall as a sophomore.</div> Source
