On the NBA Draft...

A couple years ago, the NBA decided to follow the NFL's lead and impose an age restriction on young players wanting to enter the NBA Draft. Specifically, they decided to require that a player be at least one full year out of high school - essentially forcing them to go to college for at least one season. The idea has been attacked as racist, unAmerican, and from every other concievable angle. But the fact of the matter is this - it is a good idea, and the people who argue that the kids are being treated unfairly need to reexamine how much this is protecting the kids who would be mislead by agents who have their own agenda.

Think about the life of a star basketball player on his high school team. Everyone is kissing his ass 24/7. He's banging any chick he waves his erection at, and he's being told by everyone how great he is. All he needs is some jackass local agent breathing in his ear, telling him how he's a sure-fire first round pick, trying to score a big deal on his contract, and he'll be perfectly willing to throw away his NCAA eligibility and his opportunity to prove to NBA teams that he can preform at a higher level.

The last year high school seniors were allowed to enter the draft, many of them were taken in the second round, which in the NBA means you're probably not making the team. Others weren't drafted at all. Not even close to the guaranteed millions that they thought they were in store for, these players now face years in the NBADL, or playing in Europe, or giving up on basketball altogether. And worse, they don't even have the option of going to college and improving their draft stock.

A big arguement against the NBA age minimum is that no one makes a stink about it when baseball players get drafted out of high school and never go to college (Cal Ripken is one example among thousands). But baseball players can be drafted without losing their college eligibility. If a player doesn't like the round he was drafted in, he can go to college and try to improve his standing. Not so with a basketball player, who must first sign with an agent and then declare himself eligible for the draft, thus ending his NCAA eligibility.

Of course, there is also the level of play. The NBA and college ball have both seen a decrease in the overall skill level of their players, because the best players are skipping college ball altogether and that hurts their development. College ball is very important to all players, regardless of skill level, because that is usually the first time for these kids that they are not, by far, the best players on the court. It makes them less selfish, and eases the transition to the NBA. LeBron James is probably the only player who hasn't noticeably been adversly affected by skipping out on college. Note that Kevin Garnett is considered the best NBA player to not have a championship ring, and the most common criticism leveled at KG is that he doesn't make his teammates better, and that Kobe Bryant was so unhappy sharing the spotlight that he forced the Lakers to trade Shaq and he is currently on a team where he can put up enough shots to score 80odd points, but can't win a title.

But in the end, it's the players we have to be concerned about, and the current arrangement gives the players the best protection, no matter how counter-intuitive that may seem.