The battle over age limitations in the NBA has raged on for decades, and now commissioner Adam Silver wants to turn back the clock.
During his annual news conference after the NBA’s board of governor’s meeting in Las Vegas, Silver expressed hope that the limit would be dropped back down to 18 from 19 in the league’s next collective bargaining agreement.
“I think there’s an opportunity [to change it],” said Silver as per ESPN. “It’s [based on] larger conversations than just whether we go from 19 to 18, but I’m on record: When I balance all of these various considerations, I think that would be the right thing to do and I am hopeful that that’s a change we make in this next collective bargaining cycle, which will happen in the next couple years.”
Silver felt the age switch was “the right thing to do.”
Through the 2005 NBA Draft, the league was open to players 18 and older.
Because of that, eventual superstars like Moses Malone (1974, ABA), Shawn Kemp (1989), Kevin Garnett (1995), Kobe Bryant (1996), Jermaine O’Neal (1996), Tracy McGrady (1997), Amar’e Stoudemire (2002), LeBron James (2003) and Dwight Howard (2004) all made the jump from high school to the league.
But with those superstars also came highly touted high schoolers who didn’t achieve superstar status like Kwame Brown, Sebastian Telfair, Eddy Curry and Darius Miles.
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