The battle over age limitations in the NBA has raged on for decades, and now commissioner Adam Silver wants to turn back the clock.
During his annual news conference after the NBA’s board of governor’s meeting in Las Vegas, Silver expressed hope that the limit would be dropped back down to 18 from 19 in the league’s next collective bargaining agreement.
“I think there’s an opportunity [to change it],” said Silver as per ESPN. “It’s [based on] larger conversations than just whether we go from 19 to 18, but I’m on record: When I balance all of these various considerations, I think that would be the right thing to do and I am hopeful that that’s a change we make in this next collective bargaining cycle, which will happen in the next couple years.”
Silver felt the age switch was “the right thing to do.”
Through the 2005 NBA Draft, the league was open to players 18 and older.
Because of that, eventual superstars like Moses Malone (1974, ABA), Shawn Kemp (1989), Kevin Garnett (1995), Kobe Bryant (1996), Jermaine O’Neal (1996), Tracy McGrady (1997), Amar’e Stoudemire (2002), LeBron James (2003) and Dwight Howard (2004) all made the jump from high school to the league.
But with those superstars also came highly touted high schoolers who didn’t achieve superstar status like Kwame Brown, Sebastian Telfair, Eddy Curry and Darius Miles.
So after the 2005 NBA Draft, then-commissioner David Stern negotiated an age limit of 19 in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.
When Silver became commissioner in 2014, he championed the rule set by his predecessor.
“Our view is that it would make for a better league,” said Silver at the time to GQ Magazine. You’d have more skilled players, more mature players. The draft would be better. It would be better for basketball in general. Strong college basketball is great for the NBA. And we know those players are eventually going to come to the NBA, whether they are 19 or 20 or 21.”
But Silver is not a stubborn man. Rather, he has proven to be open to change.
In this case that change would be shifting back to pre-2005.
“It may be the case that it’s in all of our interests that we start impacting with these young players, especially because in our sport they are identified at such a young age,” Silver said in regards to lowering the age limit back to 18. “And begin working with them on their development then, not just basketball skills but increasingly there’s a focus on their mental health, their diets, just helping them build character and all of the important values around the sport.”
With the speed at which the business of college sports is transforming, it makes sense to offer 18-year-olds the opportunity to play at the highest level in basketball.
And if the age is lowered back to 18, then fans, teams and the league have to hope that truly talented high schoolers outnumber the overhyped.
