20-Year-Old Age Limit in the NBA: A Positive for College Basketball

Since the 2011-2012 college basketball season ended in early April with Kentucky winning the National Championship, there has been large discussion about the draft age in the NBA. After winning John Calipari’s first National Championship, Kentucky had all five of their starters declare for the 2012 NBA Draft (Marquis Teague, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Doron Lamb, and Terrence Jones) with three of them being freshmen (Teague, Davis, and Kidd-Gilchrist).

If the age limit was 20-years-old, Kentucky would only have two players declaring for the 2012 NBA Draft (Lamb and Jones). Many feel that the age limit for the NBA Draft should be raised to 20 from the current age of 19. There are many reasons why one would think about changing the current age limit for the NBA Draft, but the biggest reasons have to be marketing, player maturity, and player development. In the end, it would be a strong positive for college basketball.