NEW ORLEANS — Adam Silver opened his NBA commissionership with a full agenda, and one lingering, highly charged item left over from David Stern’s tenure: raising the age required to enter the league, to 20 years old.
The NBA currently requires that players be at least 19, and a year removed from high school, to enter the draft. League officials proposed raising it to 20 during the last round of labor talks, in 2011, but the issue was scuttled—along with many others—as owners and players wrangled over money during the lockout.
Silver remains strongly in favor of a 20-year age limit, a position he reiterated Saturday, in his first press conference as commissioner.
“It is my belief that if players have an opportunity to mature as players and as people, for a longer amount of time, before they come into the league, it will lead to a better league,” Silver said.
That position, he said, has been reinforced by NBA coaches, “who feel that many of even the top players in the league could use more time to develop even as leaders, as part of college programs.”
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Article written by Howard Beck
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