Two weeks into the job and new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is already planning to shakeup the foundation by revisiting the issue of instituting a league-wide age limit for rookie players.
According to NBCSports.com, it’s not a stance or subject new to Silver, whom the network reports served as the “bad cop” to David Stern’s “good cop” routine during the most recent NBA lockout in advancing owner’s demands for such a stipulation.
“Increasing the age limit to 20 is a priority for Adam Silver,” NBA.com writer Scott Howard-Cooper recently tweeted. “It will be a topic of discussion once the union hires an executive director.”
Some in the know predict the new commish may well run into the same level of resistance he encountered back in 2011, when he and owners first broached the subject, only to be overwhelmingly rebuked by the NBA’s Players’ Association.
“I’m always a firm believer in us being able to make our own decisions, especially as it pertains to going out and working and having a job,” L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant, one of the most successful players in history to make the high school to the pros jump recently told LakersNation.com. “You should be able to go out there and make your own choices.”
Still, it’s not as if Silver won’t have his share of high-profile, big-name supporters. Kentucky coach John Calipari recently told The Courier-Journal he is in favor of requiring college players to spend at least two years at that level.
After instituting the rule, Calipari insists schools and the NCAA would then be better able to help players complete their education, even after a professional career commences. Calipari further hints requiring college players to have to adapt to the regimented structure of university life will also ultimately teach young players how to better behave as adults before they enter the largely care-free world of a pro sports athlete.
“If they’re going to be in college for two years, we’ve got to do more to make sure they’re covered,” he finally conceded.
The 2005 draft class was the last to have the option of skipping college, and the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2017 draft. In 2006, the one-and-done rule was implemented stipulating that after one collegiate season any player at least 19-year-old and one-year removed from high school is eligible to enter the draft.
Duke’s Jabari Parker, Kentucky’s Julius Randle, Arizona’s Aaron Gordon and Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins and Joel EmBiid are all expected to be one-and-down lottery pick selections this season.
