NBPA Reportedly 'Open' to Lowering Age Limit to Enter NBA Draft

The National Basketball Players Association is "open" to lowering the age limit to enter the NBA draft, per ESPN's Tim Bontemps. However, there are some conditions.

To lower the age limit, there would need to be a plan in place to ensure that veteran players wouldn't lose their jobs and those young players would have a good chance to succeed, per Bontemps.

The current age to enter the NBA draft is 19, meaning players typically need to attend one year of college or play in the NBA's G League or internationally before declaring for the draft. Lowering the draft age to 18 would allow players to enter the league out of high school.

NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio said of lowering the draft age:

"This is something that we have had conversations about. In our meetings today, we spent a lot of time talking about that.

"We recognize that we really do need to make sure that we have the structure in place, if we're going to have people join the league at the age of 18. We also appreciate that there is a lot of benefit to really having veterans who can bring those 18-year-olds along. And so you know, certainly anything that we would even consider, to be quite honest, would have to include a component that would allow veterans to be a part of it as well."

The NBA raised the age requirement to enter the league from 18 to 19 in 2005.

The Detroit Pistons made Amir Johnson the last high school player to be drafted when they selected him in the second round of the 2005 draft. While he didn't have the most successful NBA career, numerous superstars entered the league out of high school, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard.

In July, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told reporters he was "hopeful" the age limit would be reversed in the next collective bargaining agreement. Additionally, he said he thought lowering the draft age "would be the right thing to do."

If the NBA and NBPA agree on lowering the draft age, high school players likely wouldn't be eligible to enter the draft until 2024, as the current CBA runs through the 2023-24 campaign. There is, however, a mutual option to terminate it by the end of this season.