The age limit promises to be one of the most contentious issues when the NBA and its players sit down to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.
Commissioner Adam Silver and the team owners would like to see it raised from 19 to 20, and they’ve recently increased efforts to sell the controversial idea.
Needless to say, the NBPA strongly disagrees with this view, and vows to fight tooth and nail to get the age limit lowered to 18.
Per the AP:
National Basketball Players Association general counsel Gary Kohlman said “quite likely the union will be taking a radically different position” than the NBA on the age issue, which will almost certainly be a contentious point between the sides when they sit down in the future.
“If they were white and hockey players they would be out there playing. If they were white and baseball players they would be out there playing,” Kohlman said. “Because most of them are actually African-American and are in a sport and precluded from doing it, they have to go into this absurd world of playing for one year. […] That’s just total complete hypocrisy.”
Kohlman used the example of how LeBron James was able to enter the NBA straight from high school, noting that he’s now a vice president in the union. “He gets it,” Kohlman said. […] Kohlman added that union head Michele Roberts “believes in capitalism,” and he essentially asked why talented young athletes and talented young entertainers aren’t both able to maximize their financial potential. […] “Capitalism means that if you’re 17, 18 years old and you’re a geek and you want to drop out of college and invent Apple or something else, you can do it,” Kohlman said. “In this country you can do that. And there’s nothing stopping you from doing it. If you’re an unbelievable blues singer at 17, 18, 19 years old, you can go out and make a fortune.”
