The NBA Age Limit

The NBA age limit for entering the draft has been in the news a little bit lately, as it usually pops up upon the conclusion of the NCAA basketball season.  Depending on who you ask, you are going to get a good amount of different opinions on the matter.  Many times when you boil it down it comes to either raise it or get rid of it. 

For a good bit of time I myself was on the side in favor of raising it.  However, the more I actually took time to think about, the more I started to think that it should be abolished.  I understand that the NBA requires a more mature physical presence and mental stability than that of a high school graduate.  But is that one year of “college” really that eye-opening? 

All the age limit does is offer protection.  It offers the young men protection against making a bad decision.  I would argue that the only way to learn is to make mistakes.  If a young man doesn’t make it in the NBA after making the jump from high school, I don’t think that a magical spell is cast over them that doesn’t allow them to go to school or do something with the marketability they made for themselves in the NBA Draft process.  But what do I know, I’ve never done it.  You live and you learn, but if rules are prohibiting you from living then you aren’t learning. 

The rule also offers protection to the NBA franchise owners against making bad decisions.  This one blows my mind the most.  I can see the argument for the young men because a young man’s life is fragile in many ways.  But the owners?  If they are scared of picking the guy who mentally implodes or god forbid turns out to be a bust, then why would you even draft him in the first place?  I may be more of a conservative type, but if I was an owner I can’t see myself drafting a guy out of high school unless he was a sure-fire LeBron James pick.  None of this drafting-off-of-potential garbage that gets teams in trouble.  Only draft off of what a young man has and shows.  There’s your protection, you don’t have to hide behind the rules. 

I am going to refrain from the “this is America and in just about every other field you are free to make stupid mistakes and allowed to make decisions straight out of high school” argument because it’s too obvious.  I am also going to refrain from listing all of the things that you can do or HAVE to do or are trusted with when you turn 18, the age that you most likely are or approaching as you conclude high school because that argument is too obvious. 

We come from an age that has seen high school players allowed to make the jump to the NBA, and the NBA survived.  Yea, some teams made terrible decisions but I’m sure that they learned from it.  A majority of the high school players who tried to make the jump, failed.  I bet their failures set the example for some young men to go to college, play basketball, and get an education (in theory).  So why do we still hide behind this rule that doesn’t allow these young men make their own life decisions?