Apr.7 at 9:02 am

Eboy says:
Better idea than how it currently stands.

Apr.7 at 9:08 am

WhaHuh says:
Is this fair when compared to other american sports? Theres nothing like this in Europe and i think most young football players benefit playing in a older league eg. Ronaldo,Rooney,Giggs etc.

Apr.7 at 9:08 am

riggs says:
Must have an associates degree before opting for the draft?

Apr.7 at 9:11 am

Alpha-bet says:
This is do-do..Look, the example I always use is Carmelo at ‘Cuse..If a player is THAT talented..then why not let him go.Melo ran thru the NCAA like a men playing with boys all the way to a ‘Chip in his freshman year..there was no need what so ever for him to stay..Same would have been for a LeBron, Kobe, Howard..where you THAT good there is no need..

Apr.7 at 9:13 am

rav says:
“Theres nothing like this in Europe and i think most young football players benefit playing in a older league eg. Ronaldo,Rooney,Giggs etc.” good point, but people in europe often ask whether they should adopt the US system. if this goes through, i get the feeling that there will be a few decent US talents going overseas as they wont want to get screwed over by the ncaa. anyway how can brand claim there is an ‘agreement’ when the players union hasnt been consulted?

Apr.7 at 9:17 am

matt the jazz fan says:
What’s the player’s union doing about this? Because that’s the party who’s membership stands to lose, rather than the NBA or NCAA as Marcel says… You guys heard anything?

Apr.7 at 9:17 am

matt the jazz fan says:
WHOSE membership, sorry…

Apr.7 at 9:23 am

WhaHuh says:
Theres also stats that say that Players who stayed in college four years were less likely to become All-Stars than younger players picked in the same range of the draft. I’ll put a link in next post because of moderation. Players are more likely to delvelop bad habits if they play with inferior quality for too long.

Apr.7 at 9:24 am

WhaHuh says:
heres the link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062700364.html

Apr.7 at 9:24 am

rav says:
also if you stay all 4 years in college teams are going to wonder what was so wrong with them - if they were good they would have declared as a sophomore or a junior!

Apr.7 at 9:30 am

Jamison says:
A certain level of education is required for most jobs in America. If the NBA prefers it’s employees to be a certain minimum age, I don’t see a problem with it. And like Mutoni said, it benefits both the NBA and college hoops.

Apr.7 at 9:30 am

Ryan Jones says:
“When the time comes, though, expect plenty of fireworks.”
I’ll expect nothing of the sort, Mutoni. The players will bend and snap just like they did with the current age minimum and the dress code.

Apr.7 at 9:32 am

Ryan Jones says:
That said…
“A certain level of education is required for most jobs in America.”
…which I guess means LeBron, Kobe, et al are UNQUALIFIED for their jobs.

Apr.7 at 9:32 am

Ryan Jones says:
Which is awesome.

Apr.7 at 9:33 am

rav says:
“it benefits both the NBA and college hoops.” for college hoops it means greater exploitation!!!! and as for the education argument - whats the minimum educational requirement for joining the army? voting?

Apr.7 at 9:34 am

rav says:
and being ‘qualified’ for basketball means having the ability to play it - in a couple of months i’m going to be more ‘qualified’ than pretty much every nba player - does that mean i’m fit for the nba? also, mike vick and rae carruth spent at least 3 years in college…

Apr.7 at 9:39 am

DJ YS says:
Watch them boys gonna run over to Europe after HS instead of being pimped by th NCAA. Mark Cuban had a really interesting post on his blog about it but I can’t find it

Apr.7 at 9:41 am

d.Y. says:
A bachelor’s degree is a joke anyway, even when it’s not in “Phys Ed.” Get paid in Euros young athletes.

Apr.7 at 9:51 am

rav says:
dj ys - is it this one: http://www.blogmaverick.com/2004/05/08/how-to-keep-young-nba-players-out-of-the-nba/

Apr.7 at 10:22 am

Andre green says:
Attention with the Internet, youtube at all time highs a real marketing team with the right financial backing just to start can wreck the CBA and DBL. It’s thus simple AND1 like cross country ballin but much more organized force the leagues hand D.(Hitler) Stern can’t control the entire planets basketball unless we let him. Area football has found it’s niche and there way onto TVs cross the nation. The return of the ABA can make it with Corporations who want need ache to see there logo all over the TV…It is time my basketball brethren and I’ll update you soon with the vision and the 1st step closer to making the basketball world right once more because we/they all can’t make it to the NBA and ya family don’t want to risk there lives to see you play in war torn country’s

Apr.7 at 10:39 am

Russ Bengtson says:
Yeah, wow, never saw that coming. David Stern is rapidly becoming the worst commissioner in professional sports. Yes, I said it.

Apr.7 at 11:10 am

Ron says:
Just pay the college players. They don’t need millions, but let’s say a player gets $1K-$5K a season to play and separate the payment from the player being declared a pro athlete. A Math Ed major can become a student teacher and earn a few dollars while going to school. This helps the student prepare for the real world and get them some experience. Isn’t that what the NCAA game does for ball players. Playing gives them some experience and helps them prepared for the next level.

Apr.7 at 11:17 am

rav says:
“$1K-$5K” - wtf????? jeez, that takes it from complete exploitation to paying them a little bit to make it seem like there is no exploitation

Apr.7 at 11:34 am

RV says:
why can he waste time with this issue, but still can’t fix the division seedings?

Apr.7 at 11:35 am

Lang Whitaker says:
Yeah, I agree with Ryan there. The players association wants the age limit to be as high as possible because having younger guys in the League takes jobs away from the older guys (who are already in the union). The younger guys don’t have anyone representing them in all of this, so they’re the ones who will get screwed.

Apr.7 at 11:36 am

Allenp says:
Yeah, this whole thing is shady. But, not surprising.

Apr.7 at 11:40 am

Joel O's says:
Ridiculous. This’ll hold the players back; what if they’re blatantly ready for the league, like Derrick Rose or Beasley? It’s basically a waste of time for these guys to stay back another year.

Apr.7 at 11:43 am

Joel O's says:
Maybe this is a stretch, but do you guys think this rule would hurt the state of basketball here? What I’m saying is, these NBA-ready kids would definitely improve more if they were thrown into the league, instead of languishing against weaker competition in the NCAA. Making them waste a year of a key period in their development may prevent them from reaching their true potential.

Apr.7 at 11:45 am

Joel O's says:
I agree with D.Y on this - faced with such a stupid, profit-oriented rule, players should just go to Europe, where the tight-clothes-wearing, scruffy and old competition would definitely push them to improve more than against college kids for another year.

Apr.7 at 11:48 am

nick says:
If i were a young, supertalented guy a la carmello, kobe, howard, etc, i would play pro in europe for 2 years instead of college. Get paid, get exposure, get to travel. I think people will start to do this soon.

Apr.7 at 12:09 pm

ciolkstar says:
I really feel that the players who are making millions for the big dcollege programs, should definitely get a little more $$$ while in college. Especially if they are forced to stay there for two years. People will say “well, its just one more year.” But a year is a long time when people are struggling to get by. Colleges are just trying to lock these great players up so that they can profit off them longer, and the league benefits by getting exposure for star players, while recducing the influx of younsters in the L. At minimum, they should allow guys to play in the D-League (if they or theur families need the $)

Apr.7 at 12:18 pm

ciolkstar says:
Stern is an a$$hole. Its all about $ for college programs, protection for veteran NBA players as well as more information and reduced risk for teams drafting players. But I have often wondered how more older players aren’t displaced when every year so many young players come in the L…

Apr.7 at 12:25 pm

Jukai says:
This is serious BS. Can you imagine if someone like Kobe or Lebron had a Sean Livingston type injury when playing in their sophmore year in college? Never play a day in the NBA. This is a reallllll bad idea.

Apr.7 at 12:26 pm

canadian says:
Forcing players to play for free while money is made off them is wrong. I don’t care what reason Stern wants to give. If there was a legitimate concern about quality of players then the L should drop 4 teams. That would weed out the weak - whatever they’re age.

Apr.7 at 12:44 pm

Jamison says:
Just throwing an idea out… What if prospects had to apply to some sort of NBA Draft board, just for the opportunity to enter the draft? In essence, a young prospect (HS Senior through College Sophomore) could apply and then either be accepted or denied based on the Draft Board’s assessment of the prospect’s odds of being selected in the 1st Round. If they’re not chosen, they can re-apply next year. Once you’ve played your junior year, you can enter the draft without applying. I think that would save some of the Marcus Taylor’s and Omar Cooke’s of the world from throwing elegibility away, while allowing the LeBron’s and Greg Oden’s to filter through.

Apr.7 at 12:53 pm

ciolkstar says:
I like Jamison’s concept, but there would definitely be conflicts over who is allowed to declare for the draft and who isnt. In principle it wcould work but could get messy very quickly.

Apr.7 at 12:58 pm

Jamison says:
In my mind, the board is made up of team scouts and GM’s. Maybe each team puts together their list of Top 30 prospects and if the guy doesn’t make Top 30 for 90% of the teams, he’s ineligible. I agree that it could get messy, but it would give the fringe high schoolers and underclassmen a reality check, and provide some feedback on how to improve over the next season, and make themselves better players.

Apr.7 at 1:30 pm

Tim Donaghy says:
Might not be a bad idea for young players to consider other options than NCAA to NBA. I’m sure it would be good for the NBA’s global expansion to have some cats going to Spain or Italy. Broaden their narrow minds a little bit. It possibly could alleviate some corruption on the collegiate level. And by corruption I really mean all the little ridiculous college regulations that everyone has to abide to. Players can make money in other markets, therefore these markets will become more competitive and the NBA will reap the long term benefits. I always thought that the 1 yr college rule was something in an experimental phase. These programs can’t build much on a one year commitment.

Apr.7 at 1:41 pm

Ryan Jones says:
Jamison sez: “In essence, a young prospect (HS Senior through College Sophomore) could apply and then either be accepted or denied based on the Draft Board’s assessment of the prospect’s odds of being selected in the 1st Round.”
For all practical purposes, this already happens with college underclassmen, and it used to happen with the HS kids. The ones who had half a brain would, through whatever available channels, get the opinion of NBA scouts and GMs as to where they’d likely be chosen. Problem is, the ones with

Apr.7 at 1:43 pm

Ryan Jones says:
And word to d.Y. The more the League keeps pushing (and the more the dollar keeps tanking) the more likely one of these kids will say f*ck it and roll to Italy or Spain for a couple years. You think Nike cares which continent these kids sell shoes on? Sonny Vaccaro came close to making it happen a year or two again. Don’t be surprised if some enterprising agent makes it a reality at some point, especially if this two-year horsesh*t goes through.

Apr.7 at 2:16 pm

Cub Buenning says:
They can go all Herschel Walker and let some eccentric billionare pay them millions to play in a second-rate league.

Apr.7 at 3:52 pm

DJ YS says:
I would struggle to make the roster here @ my D3 school but if I was a prospect, I would go to Europe, get some bread, ladies, and a gain a new perspective of the world while balling. If I really wanted to go to college, I would stash some bread and do classes either over there or once I came back to the US (if I ever came back!)

Apr.7 at 4:46 pm

what says:
Every elite high school prospect should go to Euroleague straight out of high school, get paid, learn under better coaches, and then declare for the draft when they are eligible. F-ck the NCAA and it’s sh-tty version of basketball.

Apr.7 at 5:56 pm

Danny Ferry says:
Kobe/Lebron are once in a lifetime players…Ndudi Ebi/Gerald Green/Andre Blatche/Robert Swift are not. Seems to me that if they implement this rule, any scholarship athlete should be able to sign a “contract” of sorts saying that if a serious injury occurs, the school will pay for the rest of their time spent on campus achieving their degree. Besides, who would you take this year in the draft? Demar DeRozan/Ricky Rubio or Micheal Beasley/Derick Rose? And last year? Micheal Beasley/Rose out of high school or Oden/Durant out of college?

Apr.7 at 10:07 pm

David says:
Why don’t they at least let these young guys enter the d-league and use it as a farm system like baseball? Then people would care about the d-league, the players get paid (at least d-league salaries - it’s more than nothing) and get higher-quality burn, veterans don’t immediately lose their jobs, and the players that are very good can get called up right away. Or does that make too much sense?

Apr.7 at 11:57 pm

gii says:
time to start paying college ballers.

Apr.8 at 3:52 am

hursty says:
asejo

Apr.8 at 3:54 am

hursty says:
haha, oops. NBA options- 1. Pay college players. 2. Keep the one year role. 3. HS guys go to europe. 4. Scrap the idea totally.

Apr.8 at 4:08 am

hursty says:
@ david- yes. Yes it does.

Apr.8 at 6:23 am

bja says:
I hate this rule. It’s the basketball machine wanting to use the young guys for two years without paying them. Young fellas please, please come to Europe if this rule comes in.