I believe from the NBA's standpoint, they believe, general speaking, that these kids aren't mature enough to represent the league. Any qualification regarding maturity has to be arbitrary and the vast majority of these kids just aren't ready. How they represent the league affects the business and the NBA should have the right to set standards to protect those interests, and this rule doesn't seem unreasonable to me. You've got to be kidding about the most qualified comment. How can someone who's never played the game be more qualified than someone who has? They are pushing them out based on some arbitrary guess on possible potential, not qualifications.
It's great for the college game, and I personally like the idea (not because of the positive effect it would have on NCAA teams). I like it because, like LaBron James and Kobe Bryant, not 17, or 18 year old, should be signing 100 million dollar deals, etc. "Sour grapes"?? Not in the least bit! If they have that talent, then those millions will still come to them.... But when you start dishing out huge contracts, and making a big "to-do" about a 17 year old, putting all of that pressure on him, then you could potentially ruin him should he falter from the fans' expectations. Sure, James, Bryant, Shawn Kemp and Garnett are examples of high schoolers that made it, but there are lots more that failed, and dropped off the face of the earth.
I haven't heard anything, but I haven't been listening either. The guy who reported this is a pretty solid reporter. If it hasn't broken in other places it's probably because they haven't been able to confirm it yet. My guess is that the NBA is not ready for this to go prime time yet.
Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was interviewed on the radio station today. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the full interview; all I heard was an edited 20 sec or so snippet. Reinsdorf said he would welcome an age limit. In addition to hurting the college game, he felt that the NBA was hurting itself because most of these players were unknown. College players would have more of a following. Given the very limited amount I heard, I think the safe assumption would be that he didn't acknowledge that they were close on this. He probably just talked about the benefits of doing so.
i agree with that. i like nba teams that have players i watched in college. i care more if i remember the players, especially if they played great in the ncaa tournament. high school players are nobodies in my mind. they are great, but i dont know who they are and i am too lazy to pay attention. also, better players in college renews interest for basketball as a whole, which of course is good for the nba. maybe if lebron had singlehandedly won the ncaa championship he would be even more famous and a bigger marketing draw than he is now in the nba. i think the age limit is a great idea.
just look at 'Melo. Sure, Syracuse is just an 'aaaaight' team right now, but with him they killed everyone en route to a championship. The two rocks of that team, Warrick and McNamara, are still there to bear that out.
