The End of an Era

Many of you may be aware of the policy in the NBAs new CBA regarding a minimum age limit for the league. It may also have come to your attention that the policy could be perceived as a racist move, as it seems to have the greatest effect on young African American males, as they are the majority of the people entering the NBA directly out of high school. The new policy requires the prospective draftee to be one year removed from high school. Although this policy is clearly a controversial one, I would estimate that it should have a fairly positive effect on the future of the NBA.

When was the last time that a prep-to-pro player led an NBA franchise to a championship? You’d have to go back to 1983 when Moses Malone brought the Sixers the title. Since then the only player to come out of high school to play a major role in a championship team was Kobe Bryant. Right? Besides Kobe none of the great players we’ve seen come right from HS have led their teams to championships. Most of them haven’t even had great playoff success. Garnett made the conference finals once, spent a while loosing in the first round and this year, didn’t make the playoffs. Him and Kobe both missed this year. So did Lebron, the games savior. In fact, he hasn’t made the playoffs yet. The Bulls twin towers didn’t start winning until they found themselves surrounded by an “all final four” supporting cast. Jermaine O’Neil has managed some success, but like EC and TC, he found himself with a pretty great supporting cast. And we all know how well TMAC did while he was in Orlando, well enough to usher in a first round draft pick and then say goodbye to play with a giant in Houston.

Let me take a minute before we go any further, to talk about KB8. Kobe probably will be the best player in the game in a few years. He knows how to win and knows how to come up really big. But, the Lakers wouldn't have won any of those championships without Shaq. If big man hadn't moved to LA, Kobe would just be hitting his stride now. We'd be saying the same things about him we say about KG. He's great, but give him time, he'll figure out how to win. I think everyone expects KG to win a title, but people are willing to give him a little more time. We'd say that about Kobe if he didn't have Shaq. I say that now. I expect him to win another title, but give him a little more time. That being said....

So why haven’t any of these players seen serious playoff success? You could blame it on tough competition or bad supporting casts. However, a lot of teams with pretty bad casts have done pretty well in the playoffs recently... Just look at New Jersy. So would it be out of line to suggest that these guys just never learned how to win against more competitive players? I don’t think so. The competition you face in HS just can’t compare to competition at the college level. That’s obvious. Even in all-star games don’t see the kind of play that your average college game has. And there aren’t really any HS games as intense as the NCAA tournament. Requiring these players to spend a year playing against serious competition teaches them how to beat that serious competition.

Just look at Melo. He managed to take a team that was; well good enough to earn the third lottery pick, and carry them to the playoffs. Sure he had some off-season problems and even some in-season problems, but in May, Denver was back in the playoffs. Where was Kobe? Where was Lebron? Where was KG? The fact of the matter is that while a young player can spend several seasons sitting on the bench learning the game from the best players, coaches and teachers available, he can’t learn how to close out a game from the bench. You can’t teach a kid who sits on the bench what it means to be in the game and lead your team to a victory. Take the Hawks; they have a young team that has several key high school players. They seem to be having a really rough time of it, partly because the rest of their roster is about as reliable as a Tim Duncan free throw, but partly because they haven’t learned how to win against players that can challenge them.
Now certainly while you’ve been reading this you’ve though, “What about Amare?” He’s a high school player that’s been arguably the MVP of the team that has the MVP. To that I say, "He plays with the MVP! "He’s not going to get a better teammate. It’s not too different from when Kobe played with Shaq.

I understand that there are a lot of monetary ramifications from the age limit, but I think that players are really going to have a better chance to succeed at a young age. How much better can a player be with a little time in college? We'll see...