At late stages of Collective Bargaining negotiations, the age limit reportedly re-emerged as as sticky issue.
The resolution? A new CBA without any change to the age limit, which requires players to be 19 years old and one year removed from their high school class’ graduation.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
Sources: The NBA, NBPA will keep the one-and-done draft rule for now, but will continue researching and discussing issue over life of CBA.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 15, 2016
The union wants to lower the age minimum. NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants to raise it.
So, leaving the current rule in tact is a viable compromise. Clearly.
There’s also room for more creative solutions, such as a zero-or-two plan that allows players to declare from the NBA draft out of high school or wait two years (and presumably spend that time playing in college). Baseball has a zero-or-three system to serve as a model.
But that – and any other arrangement – was on the table now, and the sides couldn’t agree to anything other than the status quo. Why will that change over the during of the new CBA? Outside of an expanded D-League shaking up the system, it’s hard to see new circumstances emerging.
