NBA Age Requirement: A Marked Improvement

The NBA’s 19-year-old age requirement has been a sore subject for many basketball fans since its inception four years ago.

NBA fans don’t like it because it deprives them of talented players for a year. College fans don’t like it because it deprives them of talented players for three more years.

I have to tell you: I love the rule.

To qualify that comment, I still think work needs to be done (far be it for anyone to criticize something unless he has a workable and better solution). But having this rule in effect is much better than having no rule at all.

Consider that college basketball never would have seen the likes of Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose had there been no age limit. Isn’t it better that we got to see one phenomenal year with them in an NCAA uniform than none at all?

And can we really take away a man’s right to make a living? If Greg Oden had to stay in college for four years, his knees would have given out on him so he would have never made a dime in the NBA. At least this way, he got to make some money.

I don’t know what the conclusion is. Do we force guys to stay in school and postpone (and in some cases forever prevent) their ability to make money? Do we let them go straight to the NBA after high school, further watering down the talent level in the pro ranks?

I’m not sure. But I know we’re better off now than we were in 2005.