NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last night said his desire to study the league's current age limit is not designed to "bring high schoolers back into the league, but to focus more on youth development." Silver on NBA TV said, "It is not just a function whether we go from 19 to 20 or 19 to 18. I think that we need to go even younger -- into the AAU programs, into the youth programs -- and to look at how those players are developed as young men, athletes, and NBA players. We know now the way this business works -- players have developed a certain attitude about the game, they’ve developed certain practices, some good, some bad. It is a recognition from the NBA that part of it is a responsibility to the game generally, but also specifically to this league that in order to put the best athletes out there, we have to engage with them at a younger age. In world soccer, they are talking to those young players when they are 13, 14 years old. That doesn't mean we should be signing them up as professionals at that age. I don't think that is a good idea either, but I think we need to have more influence, especially among those elite players, which you guys all were and identified at that age.”
THE GLOBE SESSIONS: Silver said there is "enormous room for growth" in the league globally. He said the major shoe companies see soccer and basketball "as the two truly global sports." Silver: "If you look at it in terms of play and popularity, soccer is up there, but we're growing, especially in places like China, making inroads in India, another nation of well over 1 billion people on the continent of Africa. We are really just scratching the surface internationally." He added, "There's probably more basketball being played in China than the United States, but they’re not developing elite players and that’s just a function of the system. I talked to Yao Ming about that. We need to take the select pool of the top young players and get the proper coaching, play against other top-notch kids. They need to travel and that will help their national teams and the Chinese Basketball Association and the NBA as well” ("NBA Live at the Finals Pregame," NBA TV, 6/4).
