When it comes to stupidity, no one takes the cake like the hierarchies of major professional sports leagues. The NHL has lost its season and what few American fans it had left under the leadership of commissioner Gary Bettman and union chief Bob Goodenow. Baseball tarnished its image under the direction of men who turned a blind eye to the problem of steroids. Now, David Stern and his posse of NBA bigwigs are looking to impose a 20-year-old age limit for playing an 82 game schedule.
This is why I was glad to finally hear a prominent player with a vested interest in this situation speak out about the utter insanity of this proposal. Jermaine O’Neal would only be a seven-year-vet at this point in his career if he weren’t allowed to make the jump from high school to the NBA. Coming out of Eau Claire High School in South Carolina, O’Neal had the size and ability to make himself appealing to NBA scouts and general mangers, eventually landing on the Portland Trailblazers.
O’Neal argues that the age limit would be based on race. With 80 percent of the NBA being black athletes, I think that this would be only a side effect of an ageist policy in the league. No other major sports league besides the NFL has an age limit for participation, and the NFL has legitimate reasons. Freddy Adu recently signed a multi-million dollar contract to play soccer with D.C. United and teenage tennis players across the globe are able to capitalize on their talents. Why should young basketball players be any different?
No one is forcing NBA teams to draft these players out of high school; they are only doing it because these kids are viewed as potential valuable assets for building a championship team. And a precedent has undoubtedly been set with the success of Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady, among others. The last two Rookie of the Year winners have been high schoolers and this year seven all-stars went straight from playing in 2,000 seat gyms that are not McDonough to 20,000 seat arenas. Millions of 18-year-olds are allowed to go out and make money by finding themselves a job that suits their talents. This job, which suits the talents of a select few, just happens to involve a multi-million dollar salary and 48 minutes per game.
These kids have already proven they can play at the highest level, so why is there a need to change it? Who would the league be protecting with such a policy? For every high school flameout (read: DeSagana Diop) there is one straight out of college (read: Chris Washburn).
As O’Neal points out, it is unfair to allow 18-year-olds to fight and die for our country, but not be allowed to play basketball at the highest level. It is absolutely hypocritical to punish young players because the league has failed to develop a successful and viable minor league system like baseball and hockey.
With 21 million fans last year, the league has never been doing better, and its popularity will only rise as long as the best talent is given the chance to play. Restricting the NBA to 20-year-olds would be protecting those players who are not as qualified as others. The league is flourishing now with the influx of young, charismatic talent and needs to realize it. We all know higher education is overrated, anyway.
