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NBA Age Rule to be Revisited

Written by Jimmy Boyd on January 15, 2010

The New York Times reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the NBA’s minimum age rule sets up young basketball players for failure during his speech at the NCAA convention.

The recently enacted rule requires a player to be at least 19 years old, and at least one year removed from high school. Because athletes “are simply passing through” institutions, as Duncan put it, he expressed harshly that the NBA rule is a “farce” and “intellectually dishonest.”

To breathe further life into Duncan’s comments, executive director of the NBA Players Association, has said that “the vast majority of our players have consistently expressed their opposition to the age limitation and we fully intend to revisit the issue in collective bargaining on their behalf.”

Due to the age rule, rookie point guard Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks decided to play overseas and get paid instead of attending college for a year. One has to wonder if this trend will start to catch on.

I have no strong opinion on the age rule either way, but I actually like to see the nation’s top prospects visit collegiate institutions for a season for the simple reason that it helps us get to know them better as players. I think it helps the college game having the premier players in the country, even if it’s just for one season. This is strictly from a basketball standpoint as Duncan would argue that going to college should be about earning a diploma.