Adam Silver officially took over as the new NBA commissioner with the retirement of David Stern last week and he already has a big change he wants implemented.
Stern ruffled a lot of feathers when he changed the rules and no longer allowed players to go straight from high school to the league. They either have to spend a year in college or play overseas as the age limit to enter the league is 19. Now Silver wants to increase the limit even higher to 20-years old. It’s something Stern also wanted and as his longtime deputy, Silver is pushing the same initiative.
Increasing the age limit to 20 is a priority for Adam Silver. It will be a topic of discussion once the union hires an executive director.
— Scott Howard-Cooper (@SHowardCooper) February 6, 2014
“We would love to add a year, but that’s not something that the players’ association has been willing to agree to,” Stern said in 2012. “They would probably say, ‘What would you give us?’ ”
Of course college basketball coaches and schools would love this change especially University of Kentucky coach John Calipari who’s often a victim of “one-and-done” players.
As for the players themselves there’s many reasons this doesn’t work in their favor. Players who have a breakout freshman year and predicted lottery pick often fall the longer they stay in college. There’s also the worry of suffering an injury, dropping their stock and their chances.
Supporters of the rule says it helps the kids, detractors say it helps the schools. We all know how much universities make off college athletes so you have to wonder, is this really about protecting the kids?
– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)
