The National Basketball Association, or NBA as it’s known, implemented a policy in 2005 that requires anybody that wants to enter their draft to be at least 19 years of age in that draft’s calendar year, and requires that an “NBA Season has elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school (or, if the player did not graduate from high school, since the graduation of the class with which the player would have graduated had he graduated from high school).”
Essentially this rule limits potential NBA players from jumping straight from high school to the professional game. It forces them to play at least a year in college, overseas, in the NBA development league, or find something else to do.
To be clear about one thing here—we are discussing a very small percentage of the players in the NBA. Only four percent of current NBA players in 2004 (the year before the new restriction was installed) came to the NBA straight from high school.
The most notable of these past players to jump include Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, and Dwight Howard. The talents of these players that could go straight to the NBA far exceed the level of play in high ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Prashant Shukla
Outdated, Unedited, Semi-Ethical Essay on the NBA Age Minimum
July 1st, 2010 by Prashant Shukla Leave a reply »
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