I’ve always been opposed to “one-and-done” players. I’ve never liked that guys go to one year of college, just because they’re required to before entering the NBA draft. Especially as a Texas Longhorn fan, it sucks to watch your team get blown up after every season because so many guys are leaving for the NBA.
The NBA’s players association wants the rule to go back to the way it was, where players can come straight out of high school. The NBA wants to extend the age limit to 20 and keep players in college for two years. Of course, for either side to get their way, the other side wants them to make big concessions, which is something we all know neither side likes to do.
“In our view, an increase in the age limitation benefits the teams and owners in a variety of ways,” said union spokesperson Dan Wasserman. “These benefits include a reduction in compensation paid to some of the league’s best players over the course of their careers. Although we are always willing to discuss any topic with the NBA, it will be difficult to make any progress in this area if the league seeks unilateral concessions from the players.”
So basically, if the NBA was going to reduce the age limit back to 18, they’d want the players to give up something, and if they were going to push the age limit to 20, the players would want something from them. No one ever gets anything for free.
If a player has to stay in school longer, the NBPA would want that player to have insurance if something were to happen to him and a better rookie contract when they get to the NBA.
Personally, I’m in favor of extending the age limit to 20. Like I said, I don’t like one year college players and I am definitely opposed to players going right out of high school to the NBA. I hate the idea of NBA scouts and recruiters hanging out in high school gyms trying to coerce kids into jumping to the NBA, it just seems dirty to me.
As we’ve seen over the past year, the NBA and NBPA suck at negotiating and it’s a miracle we even had a season this year, so I don’t see anything changing anytime soon. The two sides will continue to think their way is the right way but not be willing to give up anything to get it and we’ll continue to have a stalemate. I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with the “one-and-done” rule.
