The NBA is the biggest basketball league in the world. Evidently, talent from all around the globe wants to showcase their talent in the league. But even among those talented players, some players are simply head and shoulders above the rest, even from a young age.
Keeping that in mind, the NBA is revisiting to reportedly reducing the minimum age to get drafted into the league. It has been reported that the new minimum age will be 18 years old instead of 19 years old.
This means that players who are in high school will once again become eligible to be drafted into the NBA. Of course, this news has been met with both positive and negative opinions.
Some believe that skipping a college education will mean that the way players will behave in the NBA could get impacted.
NBA Analyst Gives Example Of Charles Barkley And Allen Iverson To Point Out College Education Is Irrelevant
Getting educated is important. There are no two ways to look at it. But being a college graduate and a high school graduate essentially doesn’t reflect how a certain player will act in the league.
NBA analyst Chris Broussard recently pointed this out in a recent podcast. He pointed out that even high school graduates like LeBron James and Tracy McGrady could be a model NBA player.
(Starts at 4:20):
“That was the thing they always said. ‘Well, they need the socialization of college.’ LeBron James has been a model player. Tracy McGrady was fine, Jermaine O’Neal was fine, Kevin Garnett was fine. I mean these are some of the best citizens the league has seen.
And Charles Barkley, who I’m not saying he’s a bad citizen, but he did throw somebody through a window. He did spit on the fan. He went to college. Allen Iverson didn’t want to practice, he went to college. You know what I’m saying? Some guys who have gone to college have made big mistakes and guys that came out of high school didn’t. So, that’s not it.”
As explained pretty well by Broussard, getting a college education doesn’t directly mean that a player will behave well in the league.
If the NBA wants to reduce the draft eligibility age, it could provide players to make a living out of their skill sooner. At the end of the day, there is still no confirmation about whether this rule will be changed or not.
