NBA Commissioner David Stern yesterday said the league "would love to add a year" to its age limit, but the issue was "not something the players' association has been willing to agree to," according to Brian Mahoney of the AP. Mahoney noted the NBPA “would only agree to form a committee to discuss changes, and Stern knows the players are unlikely to consent to an increase without some concession from owners.” Stern: "They would probably say, 'What would you give us?'" (AP, 4/3). Stern said that it is “not his job to worry about whether a particular rule is good for the college game.” On Long Island, Barbara Baker notes the NBA’s CBA states that American-born players must be at least 19 during the calendar year of the Draft and be one year removed from their high school graduating class. Stern then “went a step further and suggested that maybe it's up to colleges to think about why their players are opting to leave after one year.” Stern: "It's not geared to whether it's a good thing for the colleges." He did say that the league “would love to have three years” to watch college basketball players “compete at a high level, as the NFL does, but one year was what the NBA was able to get in collective bargaining.” Stern: "It's a heck of a lot better for us than just getting players out of high school" (NEWSDAY, 4/4). In N.Y., Thamel & Bishop in a front-page piece note the rule was put in place in ‘05 after teams “spent years investing in athletic but unproven teenagers who were jumping straight to the NBA from high school.” The rule technically “does not force talented players … to go to college.” Academics have “criticized the rule and the NCAA has complained, but neither had the power to make any changes” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/4).
FARM SYSTEM: SPORTING NEWS’ Sean Deveney noted there are “more and more players entering the NBA with D-League experience.” In all, “107 NBA players, about a quarter of the league, have been in the D-League at some point.” The D-League currently has 16 teams and of those, “six are owned outright by NBA teams that run their operations entirely.” Three are affiliated with teams in a “hybrid” model, “similar to baseball’s minor-league affiliation system, where the NBA team runs the basketball operations but the team’s ownership takes care of day-to-day operations like ticket sales.” D-League President Dan Reed said that there “could be 30 teams, with each NBA team having its own affiliate.” But that is “in the distant future,” and Reed said that “even though he expects more teams to buy into their own D-League affiliate, there are no plans for expansion” (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 4/3).
