April 5,
2006
Kid, You're Too Young To Ball
Roller
coaster height restrictions continue to haunt me, despite the 69-inch tower
of flesh that presently renders me eligible to enjoy any ride I want.
Whether it was a wryly smiling Yosemite Sam with a magnum in his hand or
a smug-looking pirate with a sword that hung one miserable inch above my
head, I felt shorter than Tom Cruise. But now I’m less young and less
stupid and I understand that those restrictions were there for my
safety. Is this the same logic David Stern, the NBA commissioner, is
using to push his new NBA age limit of 20 years? “Kobe, LeBron, just
trust me. It’s for your own good.”
The basketball scene would be rather skewed if, say, LeBron James were
still in college. Redick and Morrison would not be on SportsCenter twice
a night. The Cavaliers would still stink. Nike would have to think of
something else to do with $90 million. And LeBron would probably be more
than a little perturbed at being one knit-picky rule away from fame,
fortune, and an opportunity to dunk on a 7’5” Chinese guy. I sympathize
with future LeBrons.
Taken from an interview with Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, the following is
Stern’s explanation. “This was not a social program, this was a business
issue. There was a serious sense that this was hurting our game. Having
an 18-year-old player not playing, sitting on the bench, is not good for
basketball. If we could have these kids develop for another year, either
(A) they'd see that they weren't so good, and we'd see that they weren't
so good, or (B) they would get better, and when they came, they would be
able to make a contribution. And that would improve the status of
basketball.”
There you have it folks. He played the business card. In true Michael
Corleone fashion, most critics would like Stern to take his business
balderdash and shove it.
Responding to a reporter who specifically asked if he thought Stern’s
dictum had racial motivation, the Pacers’ Jermaine O’Neal remarked, “As
a black guy, you kind of think that's the reason why it's coming up.”
Race
card: Check.
Granted, he was baited into that one. But could the race mongers among
us, just once, exercise a little self control? Please? Does anyone
honestly think that Stern is so innately racist that he is willing to
propose a monumental shift in NBA eligibility just to place a temporary
roadblock in front of the mostly black handful of high school students
drafted into the NBA every year? For the social sanity of the country,
please consider putting the race card away for this one.
Former
player, current TV analyst, Kenny Smith, weighed in on the situation.
“To me it is unconstitutional to take someone’s opportunity to make a
livelihood.”
Constitution card: check.
Some people tend to confuse companies with democracies. The USA is a
democracy. The NBA is not. The NBA can tell you how to dress. It can
take your money if you bump a grown man in a striped uniform or verbally
misrepresent that you respectfully disagree with a call. If you get
Stern mad enough, he’ll ban you from the game for a year. The NBA has
every right to propose an age limit.
However, I don’t believe Stern’s explanation either. I think there is
more to it than business, which is ironic for an era in which the only
consistently veritable claim is “I did it for the money.”
In a game where the style of play is increasingly dictated by highlight
reels and individual statistics, one would have to make a complex and
compelling case in order to convince me that the NBA benefits
financially from teams like the Spurs, the Nets or the Pistons playing
in the NBA Finals. The television ratings for championships without
flashy standouts such as Kobe Bryant, Shaq, or Jordan are consistently
pathetic. The Spurs and the Pistons are simultaneously the best teams
and the most boring to watch. Who sells the most jerseys? Team by team,
the Spurs and the Pistons are not even in the top ten.
It is unlikely that Stern actually believes improving the quality of the
draft and thus, the quality of the league, will make the NBA more
profitable. This is one of those strange cases where the exact opposite
of normality is possible, or even probable. Instead of citing reasons of
integrity and using the common rhetoric of “for the good of the game,” I
think Stern is actually hiding behind the veil of business.
I may be crazy, but I think he has the integrity of the game at heart.
Anyone who tells Allen Iverson that, when injured, he has to put away
his bling and dress formally has something else on his mind.
A few NCAA years will, in most cases, improve the quality of NBA’s
players. It will “grow them up”, too. The success stories of Kobe,
LeBron, McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal are at least balanced by stories
such as Eddy Curry, Kwame Brown, Darius Miles or Tyson Chandler. Of
course, pointing to a non-success story is not exactly hard evidence
that skipping college dramatically reduces a player’s chances of NBA
success. Every year, high draft picks who attended college prove to be
incredibly disappointing as professionals. But one cannot reasonably
argue that two years in college will have anything but a positive effect
on an athlete’s transition from High School to the NBA.
Stern can say what he wants, but the new age limit is not about the
business. It’s probably not even fair. Regardless, he is acting on
behalf of the integrity of his favorite game and the well being of those
who play it. Contracting the NBA age limit will have severe
consequences. I predict, along with Stern, that they will be among the
sort that truly benefits everyone involved.
Maybe if I were stuck in college with 30 teams clamoring to make me
rich, I’d feel differently. But this is altogether negligible since I am
now tall enough to ride any roller coaster ever made and old enough to
dunk on Yao Ming.
© 2006 North Star Writers
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