MLS Has Solved NBA and NCAA Age Debate

When should a basketball player enter the NBA draft? The short answer is when he is ready. The NBA has decided that for an American basketball player, it is impossible for him to be ready prior to the year he turns 19 and is one year out of high school. Or at least it is so unlikely he’ll be ready that it’s not worth wasting time and energy to find out. Clearly that’s not the case. We have good evidence that draft prospects who decided that they were ready straight out of high school did a pretty good job. And for proponents of an age limit, we likely will never know how many careers did not pan out because players did not have access to NBA training and game experience at an earlier age. One of basketball’s core values is individuality. Part of that individuality is that players develop at wildly different rates. But if the NBA simply allows them to self-select, the value teams put on “potential” pushes players to enter the draft as soon as possible. An age limit though delays play...