Following a report by FoxSports.com that the NBA and NCAA were possibly teaming up to increase the League’s age limit by forcing guys to stay in college an additional year, there was quite a bit of hand-wringing yesterday, and I would say quite justifiably so.
The whole thing was as confusing as it was irritating. And it turns out, completely wrong.
David Stern said yesterday that, even though he thinks the NBA would benefit it, he will not push for the age-limit to be increased from 19 to 20. And the Players’ Association is perfectly fine with that.
“The union membership has historically been overwhelmingly opposed to raising the age limitation by a margin of over 90% of the membership,” said spokesman Dan Wasserman from the players’ association office in New York.
“It is highly doubtful that the league or the union would open up negotiations during the CBA, just for one issue. It has never been done before and there has been no discussion of it happening now.
Even better, the NBA and NCAA are instead joining forces in an effort to improve youth basketball, and perhaps even weed out some of the corruption in the high-stakes game of recruiting. Best of luck with that one, fellas.
