The NBA reached a toothless compromise when it negotiated an age minimum of 19 in the new collective-bargaining agreement it reached in principle with the players union, according to high school and AAU coaches.
“It solves nothing,” Christ the King head coach Bob Oliva said. “I know [NBA Commissioner David] Stern wanted to get the NBA out of high school basketball, but they should be more worried about the agents.”
On May 24, Stern said in a press conference that “I’d like to get scouts out of high school gyms.”
He reiterated a goal to prohibit anyone under 20 from entering the league, but settled on 19 and a year after their class graduates, which will likely only send more players to prep school for a year after they finish high school – and away from NCAA rules.
Still, even a 20-year age limit wouldn’t have been enough to get high-school basketball under control.
“Everyone wants to be involved with the next LeBron [James],” said Gary Charles, who runs the Long Island Panthers AAU program. “High schools, AAU teams, sneaker companies. Why would agents be any different?”
Unless the league figures out a way to keep agents out of high-school gyms, nothing will change, according to Charles.
“If they had moved the age to 20, it might have slowed things a little bit, because then they’d have to wait two more years to realize a big financial gain,” Charles said. “They tried to please everybody and instead they got something useless. Agents are just going to send kids to prep for a year.”
Charles is involved with players who could be affected by the new rule. One is Derrick Caracter, who goes to St. Patrick’s in Elizabeth and will be 18 when next year’s draft comes around.
“This is definitely going to have an impact on him,” Charles said. “We’ll have to see what happens.”
Rice’s Curtis Kelly is another local product who may have considered making the jump, but his high-school coach, Mo Hicks, and Gauchos AAU coach Paul Brown have consistently said that he needs to go to college.
As for any hopes the NBA had for eliminating the commercialization of high-school basketball, they are probably unrealistic.
“It’s a monster,” Oliva said. “And the monster is out of control. This isn’t going to stop it. It’s insignificant.”
