When the NBA adopted the new age limit...many deemed it racist.
I mean, white kids in hockey, tennis, golf and baseball can go pro at 18...why can't the black hoops players? Well, mainly because the kids in hockey and baseball get to go to a minor league...where as the NBA doesn't have one [the NBDL is not much of a league]. And tennis and golf are individual sports where organizations don't need to wait for your development. And the argument that this affects young black men is true, in a sense....but the ones who benefit most are....young black men. If we aren't drafting high school players....who will we be drafting? College players...and most of them black.
Okay...now comes the one about "an 18 year old can fight in Iraq". So? Playing in the NBA isn't a right....nor is it a duty. Heck, you can't rent a car until you are 25....yet you know how to drive well enough that the state gave you a licence.
Here comes the "LeBron, Kobe, T-Mac, Amare" glance. Hey, Shaq, Iverson, Webber and Mourning would've been fine entering the league outta high school, too.
Or how about the one where it keeps basketball players from earning a living. Hogwash. Sure, college isn't for everyone...but there are leagues out there. All over Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States. Go to the USBL or the CBA. You can earn a living there as well....just not the ones you see on the Sprite commericals.
The reason is that NBA teams are tired of drafting crap. Potential that never works out. On a roster of 12 players and in a draft with 2 rounds...draft picks are important. Darko Milicic sat on the bench for most of the NBA Finals. Wouldn't some other veteran been more productive in that roster spot? Why have a player on your bench that you cannot use?
The NBA is full of this. Guys that are sitting on benches waiting to learn to play. Sorry, but this is the NBA....you should know how to play once you sign the contract. For years, the draft yielded instant impact players as well as role guys fitting in. Sure, there are always busts even if they graduated college. The draft is imperfect.
Of the 30 picks in the first round...24 would be legal under the rules of next year's draft if they applied today. Only Martell Webster, Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, Yaraslov Korolev, Johan Petro and Ian Mahinimi wouldn't have been in this draft. Only Green has any hopes of being something right away....and that may not be much.
The NBA also likes to have some name recognition coming in. Most basketball fans only heard of half the guys taken in the first round. The ones they may recognize played roles in the NCAA tournament. Two months ago, you never heard of Gerald Green. Now, you project him as the next Tracy McGrady.
I like the rule....but I feel it should have been set at the original 20....or "high school + 2". There was only ONE college freshman taken in the first round [Marvin Williams] and he hasn't started a game in over a year.
Of course, if you look at the draft...college seniors are rewarded. Channing Frye, Joey Graham, Danny Granger, Hakim Warrick, Julius Hodge, Luther Head, Jason Maxiell, Wayne Simien and David Lee were all picked in the first round...with the first two picks of the second round [Salim Stoudamire and Daniel Ewing] were also college seniors. Of the high schoolers....only 3 were selected in the 1st round while NINE were taken in the 2nd round. Teams don't mind wasting 2nd round picks on projects.
Again, I know that there are a ton of college seniors taken in the lottery that busted as well. But teams figure it out a bit quicker. Teams don't like to have a Tracy McGrady or Jermaine O'neal sit on the pine for the length of their rookie contract so another team can lure him away just as he is hitting his stride. It is like re-drafting the player. You have to weigh the potential of your own player!!!
My point is this: Kentucky and North Carolina
Last year, Kentucky's Randolph Morris was oh-so-close to entering the NBA Draft out of high school. He didn't...and went to Kentucky instead. While at Kentucky, he showed he wasn't even ready for a lackluster SEC...let alone the NBA. Someone apparantly got it into his head that he was an NBA player. Dude, you averaged 8 points in the SEC. With the shiny lights of the NBA just within sight...Morris couldn't stay on his Kentucky road and detoured into a brick wall. He performed poorly in the workouts yet stuck in the draft. As Tuesday night went along....Morris' name was nowhere to be heard. Sure, I'll bet his phone was ringing as a few teams were inviting him to their summer leagues...but that wasn't what Morris had in mind when he up and left Kentucky.
Then you look at North Carolina. The Tar Heels placed 4 of their players in the top 14 of the draft. EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM benefitted from going to college. Sure, under my plan, Marvin Williams would still be in Chapel Hill....but he's legal under the current plan. Would Williams been the #2 pick out of high school?? Nope.
Was Raymond Felton a #5 pick last year? Were Rashad McCants or Sean May lottery picks last year? Nope. Felton developed range in his 3rd year at UNC. He was always fast....he always had handle. But his new jump shot moved him to #5. Sean May was a tubby center who huffed and puffed up and down the court. May learned conditioning in his 3rd year. That kept him in games longer, upping his productivity and landing him in the lottery. The knock on McCants was his attitude. The guy spent 2004-2005 quelling his offensive arsenal to help Carolina win a championship! He matured.
So college can help. The problem is young players been leaving early due to duping scouts into that "potential". There is a reason the NBA adopted this new rule...and I cannot wait to see how it turns out for the future of a league I love.
4 comments:
It's hard to say that it's all image related for one reason. Lebron James has basically been the new face of the NBA straight out of high school. I think the NBA is stating that it's an image thing because they want to look like they care for the kids who get bad advice and think they are capable of playing in the NBA just because there's a scout in the gym, but I think it has to do more with money. As Commisioner Stern stated in the State of the League address, the costs of running a franchise are rising. To quote Stern:
"One reason why the owners initially proposed a lot less percentage wise was that the costs post 9/11, insurance, security, fuel, have gone up dramatically and have, in fact, changed the operating nature of expenses with respect to all NBA teams."
By taking scouts not only out of high school gyms, but out of 18 and under Junior teams around the world, this saves alot of time and resources that can now be spent more efficiently. These games generally don't have a lot of media coverage, so if a team wants to see for instance Yaroslav Korolev who was drafted by the Clippers this year, they can't get much film on him, so they have to travel to Russia to see him compete against other 18 year olds and evaluate him from there. By making the age limit 19, there will be hopefully, more footage of players and more efficient use of scouts, costs, and travel time, and to top it off the league can paint the picture of actually caring for the players that get bad advice that destroys their chances of playing in college.
YCS
The limit should of been at least 2 years of college to help college b-ball don't u think?
You say the limit isn't race related, I say it was nothing BUT race related. Stern as much as admitted it when he was asked about the new CBA on an interview at game 7 of the finals. He made some comment that the NBA, with the new CBA, has gone a long way towards having a league that is thought of as one in which the players care about their surrounding community. If that isn't double speak for "We know the vast majority of white people in America believes the league is dominated by black thugs who would be selling crack if they didn't ball, so we've taken the step of putting these niggers in their place, just a tad, just enough to let them know the real deal." It is no coincidence that Stern has been consulting with Republican strategists and it's absolutely no coincidence that this age limit comes up now. You're a good man Sportz, but if you don't see what;s going on here, you're simply trying to give benefit of doubt where it has no place existing.
Kevin
Like I've always said Kevin. The biggest benefactors of the age limit is black men. If all these high schoolers can't make the jump to the NBA [and sure, they are mostly black men] it will be black college men getting the jobs.
I will agree that the fact that Euros don't have the same criteria as the American players do is wrong...however, the Euros can be kept in Europe for an extra season while the high school kids have no where to go if they hire agents.
Actually...I shouldn't say Euros. Foreign players...whether they are from Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America or Mars can come in to the league.....and we just saw 2 black men from France and a black man from Turkey just selected in the first round...and they'd still be in the draft under the new rules. And if the new rules applied in the 2005 draft...only 3 players would not have been first rounders [Webster, Bynum, Green]. So, the top 3 second rounders would've been first rounders and they were black college men.
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