The NBA is often dubbed the most progressive league in professional sports, in part because commissioner Adam Silver doesn’t hesitate to change his views on a topic as more information becomes available.
There’s no better example of Silver’s openness to go against the grain than his recent comments during Summer League regarding the NBA’s 19-year-old age minimum, and the evolution of his posture on the subject.
Up until 2005, the NBA Draft was open to players 18 years or older, which meant players were eligible for the pros directly out of high school. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O’Neal, Moses Malone, Shawn Kemp, Amar’e Stoudemire, and, of course LeBron James are among some of the greats in league history to make the leap directly from high school to the pros. The list of prep-to-pro players, however, also includes Kwame Brown, Jonathan Bender, DeSanga Diop, Sebastian Telfair, Eddy Curry, Darius Miles, and several other players who may have been better served had they opted to do a year or more in college to hone their game.
The 2005 NBA Draft class was the last to allow high school stars, and Gerald Green — a talented player whose career arguably could have benefitted from college-level trainers and experience — understood, and even endorsed, the raised age limit.
“I guess it was a smart move, because there’s a lot of players that come out of high school that are not really prepared,” Green said, in a 2005 New York Times article. “Everybody’s not LeBron James. I’m not LeBron James, Martell’s not LeBron James, there’s only one LeBron James. He came in ready and he dominated the league. There’s a lot of players that have to get developed. Me, I’ve got to get developed. But I guess that age limit, that one year of college experience, can get you more developed and I think that’s pretty good.”
While it was former commissioner David Stern who negotiated the 19-year-old age minimum into the collective bargaining agreement in 2005, it was Silver who championed the rule when he became commissioner in 2006. But his views on this sensitive topic have evolved in his decade-plus in command.
He’s also been incredibly forthright with the media on this subject. So much so, that we can show his evolution with his own words:
19-year-old? How about 20?
Silver spoke on the 19-year-old NBA Draft age minimum in an interview with GQ Magazine, which had dubbed him 2014’s Man of the Year. At the time, he felt forcing high school kids to go to college or spend time overseas would increase the skill level of players entering the pros:
“[The union’s] principal argument is that it’s a restriction on players,” he said. “And as a philosophical argument, I totally understand that. Of course it’s a restriction, in the same way a draft is a restriction. But our view is that it would make for a better league. You’d have more skilled players, more mature players. The draft would be better. It would be better for basketball in general. Strong college basketball is great for the NBA. And we know those players are eventually going to come to the NBA, whether they are 19 or 20 or 21.
Hold on, let’s pump the brakes
In February 2017 during his yearly all-star weekend press conference, Silver said “we absolutely need the union in order to re-visit the [age minimum].” After all, the 19-year-old age minimum was something Stern helped negotiate into the previous collective bargaining agreement. And with new National Basketball Player’s Association executive director Michele Roberts pushing the players’ concerns with force, it seemed Silver was starting to come around on the idea of talking the age minimum through at the bargaining table.
“Well, first of all, we absolutely need the union in order to revisit the age,” Silver said, via ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “The current age minimum of 19 years old, but something Michele and I discussed directly — and this is different than last time we negotiated a collective bargaining agreement — is that rather than say to you that talk to us in seven years when we sit back down to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, I think she and I both agree that it’s the kind of issue that needs to be studied, in essence, outside of the bright lights of collective bargaining.”
Silver starts “re-thinking” his position
In June 2017, Silver joined FS1’s Colin Cowherd on his show, The Herd. Cowherd said Europe had figured out how to develop its youngest players, and suggested the NBA both expand its developmental league and drop the age minimum back down to 16 years old. Silver did not go as far as to agree with the age 16, but he did admit he was now re-thinking the league’s historical stance on raising the age minimum.
“Our historical position, since we raised the age from 18 to 19, is that we want to go from 19 to 20. And the union’s position is that they want to go from 19 to 18,” said Silver, who then noted he and Roberts agreed to table age minimum talks until the economics of the new CBA were hashed out. “It’s [an issue] that I think we need to be more thoughtful on and not just be in an adversarial position, sort of under the bright lights of collective bargaining,” Silver said. “I think the top college coaches and [athletic directors] should be at the table. Obviously our union, we can’t move the age without an agreement with our union. I think it’s something that we’ve gotta step back [and ask] ‘What’s in the best interest of basketball?’”
Now, it seems to be a foregone conclusion
Silver addressed the media during Las Vegas Summer League after his meeting with the NBA’s Board of Governors, and he finally said flat out that he was ready to make the change of reversing the age minimum back down to 18 years old. His entire quote is transcribed below to provide full context of his comments:
“The sense was we should be engaging with the Players Association on the minimum age to come into the NBA,” he said on Tuesday in a transcript provided by the NBA’s communications department. “We presented the pros and cons on going from 19 to 18. In conjunction with that presentation, we discussed a lot about the development of younger players prior to them coming into the professional ranks,” he said. “We’ve had several discussions with both the NCAA and USA Basketball about engaging with them, with players beginning roughly at 14 years old, and especially with those elite players who we know statistically have a high likelihood when they’re identified at that age of being top-tier players coming into the league.
“So I think the next step will be to sit down with the Players Association. Of course, it has to be collectively bargained if we’re going to lower the age. That’s something we’ll begin to discuss with them.”
“My personal view is that we’re ready to make that change. That it won’t come immediately. When I’ve weighed the pros and cons, given that Condoleezza Rice and her commission has recommended to the NBA that those one-and-done players now come directly into the league, and in essence the college community is saying we do not want those players anymore, that sort of tips the scale in my mind that we should be taking a serious look at lowering our age to 18.”
Silver once championed a 19-year-old age minimum that the player’s union fought against. But now, he appears to be on board with allowing high school players into the NBA once again. After all, Kobe, LeBron and countless other stars were beneficiaries of the prep-to-pro jump.
Why make them wait a year? Silver is answering that question.