Buzz Bissinger goes off on the one-and-done rule

You know who Buzz Bissinger is, right?

The author of Friday Night Lights. The guy who ripped blogs and bloggers, specifically Deadspin's Will Leitch, on Costas Now.

Bissinger was back in the news today as he wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times critiquing the NBA's 19 year old age limit. Bissinger's argument is, well, spot on. (Did you expect anything less?)

Essentially, the gist of the article is that there is no statistical evidence that says kids coming out of high school are any less likely to succeed in the NBA than a player that went through four years of college. And the best part about it - he uses cold, hard facts, not just opinion.

Consider:

• 21 high schoolers were drafted between 1975-2001. The number of kids that didn't reach the league was equal to the number that became superstars (four - Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal, Tracy McGrady).
• Between 2002-2005, of the 26 high schoolers picked, 20 are still in the NBA and three (Amare Stoudamire, Dwight Howard, and LeBron James) became stars.
  
• Kids coming out of high school were responsible for 4.8% of the last 84 NBA arrests (they make up 8.3% of the league). More than half of those 84 came from four year college kids.
• Between 1996-2006, players drafted as high schoolers had better rookie seasons efficiency-wise than those taken after 3-4 years in school.
  

Seriously, read the article.

The facts are there.

But despite the arguments, despite the logic, and despite the facts provided, this rule will never change.

There is too much money on the line.

That's why it was established in the first place. It wasn't to keep NBA front office types and agents out of high school gyms (because clearly that didn't happen). It wasn't to try and get these kids to become educated, because after the first semester one-and-done's don't face any ramifications for not going to class.

It was done for the money. The NCAA gets to have the stars fill seats, sell jerseys, and draw TV ratings while NBA execs get to see them play one year of major college basketball. When you are investing millions in a teenager, it is a bit more comforting to see him play on a national stage for 30-some odd games than to throw that much money at a recent high school graduate.

Personally, I go back and forth on the issue. Allowing kids to go one-and-done is terrible for the climate of college basketball; it makes it nearly impossible to keep the recruiting process and educational procedures clean.

That said, ideally I would like to believe that making these kids attend college is a good thing. Maybe they like the idea of getting an education. Maybe they end up realizing that going pro out of high school would have been a mistake and work their tails off to become an NBA player. And maybe they end up dogging it through a year at college, and fizzle out in the NBA after their rookie contract.

Whatever it is, forcing kids to go to school for just one year doesn't make any sense. While forcing them to go for two or three years is not a bad idea, I have trouble believing that it is fair to force an 18 year old, an adult in our society that is allowed to go to war, to put off his earning potential for a year.
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Dwight Howard doesn't like the 19-and-1 rule

Earlier this week, we wrote about Steve Cohen, a congressman from Tennessee that is against the NBA's age limit, and the minor tiff he had with Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt.

The way we ended the article was this:

There is a silver lining, however. Maybe this little dust-up will bring the problems of the 19-and-1 to the forefront, and will help in eventually getting it overturned.

Could this actually be happening?

One of the articles we linked to in today's Morning Dump was from Deadspin, and their take on the rule. According to one of their links, it may even be illegal. From BWP Employment Law:

Surprisingly lost in the discussion about whether age limits are appropriate for the NBA draft is the fact that many state laws prohibit employment discrimination against individuals who are eighteen or over. As playing in the NBA is employment — albeit a dream job — eighteen year olds are deprived of their potential employment and are thus victims of age discrimination. In New York, for example, the New York State Human Rights Law prohibits employers from refusing to hire or employ an “individual eighteen years of age or older… because of such individual’s age.” The NBA, and its players’ union, are subject to compliance with all New York employment laws, as well as other state laws which prohibit discrimination based on age.

Yesterday, Dwight Howard weighed in on the issue. From TrueHoop:

I don't think going to college would have helped me out. Not saying that college is bad, it's very good, but I think for me and what I want to accomplish, it just wasn't for me.

You're obviously richer for being here.

It's not about money, though.

But you think you're a better basketball player, also, because you came directly to the NBA?

I think so. You're playing basketball all the time. You're getting coached. You're playing against the best of the best. You know, sometimes college is good for a lot of players, and others it's not.

So while this rule is facing some criticism in the news, does anyone really expect it to get overturned, especially when David Stern is trying to increase the age limit? The bottom line is that the NBA owners want to see the guys they are going to be investing millions of dollars in play. NBA teams cannot scout high school players, and to be fair, what would they get from seeing a Kevin Durant or a Derrick Rose going up against over-matched opponents at the high school level anyway?

Not much.

It may be unfair to the players, but if it protects the investments of the NBA owners (and that is what each player is to them), then Stern is going to try his damnedest to keep the rule in place.

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