So you are 18 years old. You just graduated high school, and you have decided that college is not for you. Maybe you go and work in your uncle’s garage as a mechanic. Maybe you enlist in the Marines and get ready to fight in Iraq.
What’s that, you want to play in the NBA? Are you crazy? You’re not ready to be compensated generously for playing a boy’s game. You need one more year and then you will be ready.
The NBA’s 19 year-old age minimum is a load of crap from a constitutional perspective, and unfortunately, it’s not going to help college basketball.
Memories of Carmelo Anthony and visions of the next Lebron making D-1 athletes look like schoolboys—even if only for one year—have gotten some fans excited. If you are one of those fans, chill out.
Anthony was the exception, delivering Syracuse and Coach Jim Boeheim that elusive NCAA Championship. For every Carmelo there are twenty versions of Stephon Marbury and Tim Thomas—players who leave after one season, send their programs into downward spirals and cost coaches their jobs.
The next Lebron, if he even exists, will never take a Sociology 142 final or make it to a Sweet 16 press conference. Oh you think he will, huh? I think I’ve got just the guy to shut you up.
“What if Lebron James was not allowed to play [in the NBA], would he still have gotten his Nike contract?” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I think he would have. So I don’t think he is going to college. So what does he do?”
Great question, Coach K. From where I’m sitting, that player has two legit options for that one year. He can go to Europe and get paid while competing against lesser talent. But as much as this would do for an 18 year old’s maturity, I don’t see these guys going for it. What he will do is play in the NBA Developmental League, which will be the NBA’s version of a minor league. Then comes the ripple effect.
If the very best players go to the Developmental League, then the second and third-tier players coming out of high school—guys with a very realistic chance of making the NBA eventually—will begin to follow and fortify the league. As the NBDL rises, college basketball will fall.
Now the ball is in the court of the NCAA. College basketball needs to become a more attractive option in order to prevent a mass migration. Maybe—dare we say it—college basketball players should start making money.
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