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NBA: 4 changes Adam Silver should make to improve league

By Michael Burke

Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver addresses the crowd before the start of the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver addresses the crowd before the start of the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jun 27, 2014; Independence, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt (left) listens as first round pick Andrew Wiggins speaks to the media at Cleveland Clinic Courts. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 27, 2014; Independence, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt (left) listens as first round pick Andrew Wiggins speaks to the media at Cleveland Clinic Courts. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Lower Age Limit:

Plain and simple: I want to see the world’s best basketball players on the world’s biggest basketball stage. But each year, the best 18-year old basketball players in the country are restricted from playing in the NBA, the world’s biggest basketball stage.

That’s because of the league’s age minimum, currently at 19 and in the works of being upped to 20.

Noooooo!

18-year olds who are good enough to play in the NBA at 18 — and many of them are — have a constitutional right to jump from high school to the pros.

Why should an 18-year old who, for the sake of argument, comes from an inner-city and a poor family, be denied an NBA paycheck and instead be forced to play a season in college, where he risks suffering a career-ending injury and never making a dime playing basketball?

Take Nerlens Noel, for example. Had Noel been able to enter the 2012 NBA Draft out of high school, he would have been a lottery pick and likely a top-five pick, which would have earned him a nice salary.

Instead, Noel had to spend a year at the University of Kentucky, where he tore his ACL in a February game at Florida. He was drafted sixth overall in the 2013 Draft by the Sixers, and has yet to play an NBA game. Noel might have knee issues for the rest of his career, all because of a torn ACL he suffered in a meaningless college game.

Who knows? Had Noel jumped to the NBA as an 18-year old, perhaps he would have never suffered such a devastating injury. Perhaps he would have had a long, successful and healthy NBA career.

Same with Joel Embiid, who was surely the most talented player in the 2014 NBA Draft Class but went third overall, not first, because of injuries suffered in the past calendar year that might forever derail him. Again, that’s not fair to Embiid.

There’s a simple solution: reduce the age minimum back to 18. Let the 18-year olds decide for themselves, with the help of family and friends, if they’re ready to jump to the NBA. Stop denying them their rights.

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